FREEDOM OF THE SEAS

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11784, 23 August 1916, Page 1

FREEDOM OF THE SEAS

I GEPJOTS GREAT JOKE. THE DEISTSCKLAND EXCURSION. [FltOlI OCII CORRESPONDENT.] • LONDON, July 13. Germany's latest attempt at manipulating public opinion all over the wond was not particularly clever, for it presumed too much for success on the shortness of public memory. It was apparently intended to show that Germany can do what she likes under the sea, but one U " boat does not make an export trade, nor does the theatrical voyage just concluded am;d screeches of Hun exultation prove that the British blockade is " a mere paper affair." „ And. it may be remarked, the fact that Germany muls it necessary to adopt the under-sea route to America will scarcely suggest to neutrais that tho German claims regarding t.io result of tho groat naval battle off Jutland were well-founded. Their grea.> victory," amongst other things, enable quite a b g fleet of British merchant ships (nearly two hundred it is said) to slip out oc the Baltic ports where thev had been Ijfug since August, 1914, and return home. Its only results £o far as Germany s mercantile marine is concerned seems have been to make Baltic waters lar more dangerous to navigate than heretofore, and to enable a submarine to carry a few hundred tons of cargo to America—a thing she could have done whether the Jutland battle had takenplace or not. The voyage told the world nothing new regarding the possibilities of the submarine for no less than ten British submarines built m Canada made the voyage to the Cmtea Kingdom last summer in less than ten days, and we aro all well aware of the fact that the AEI and AE2 compassed .the much longer voyage from England to Australia under their own power. Also, it is within the recollection of, at any rate, people keenly interested in marine affairs that in 1911 three British submarines of the C class proceeded under their own power to Rong jiong, a distance of nine thousand miles. The German suggestion that the spectacular voyage of the. Deutschland proves the inadequacy of the British blockade and that by means of mercantile submar-nes Germany will be able to restore to herself the freedom of the seas is, of course, ludicrous. The Huns might as well claim that their fighting submarines had enabled them to establish their naval supremacy. Tho Deutschland has still to wflt back to Germany, or to a Germon-controlled port on the Belgian coast. We have had ample proof (and so have the Germans) that a, successful outward run by an enemy submarine does net necessarily mean a safe return to port. NEW "HIGH SEAS FLEET-" The melodramatic excursion of the Deutschland will .be assessed at. _ its proper value by all but the "most supeiv ficial thinkers, and. will certainly not give neutrals the' impression the Germans desired them to get. The very fact that something like two hundred. British ships we're .able to leave the ' Baltic 'after the Jutiand battle disposes once and for all of the a&siduously promulgated iictiou that the German High Seas ileet did not suffer a terrible mauling. It is indeed proof positive that tho German fleet came in for a much bigger-material and moral defeat than Admiral Jellicde V dispatch indicates, seeing that for many days after the light Germany was unable to even "'police" her own particular bit of .enclosed ocean sui3cienr.lv to prevent the escape of a. big fleet of British steamers, or to give* safe conduct to her own merchantmen voyaging to and from adjacent neutral countries. The voyage of the Deutschland and the recent capture of two or three small British vessels in the North Sea will hardly blind the neutral eye t) the significance of these, facts, and it | is not, likely that the German Adm'/- ! aity's attempt to palm off the captuves •' as the work of their High" Seas Fleet i will produce ths impression thc-y desire to make. Tho Germans said early last week: —• ; •' Following the action of our High Sea Forces on June 23. when they advanced into ihe North Sea and captured the British steamer Brussels between Rotterdam and London,, tho British steamer Lestris. coming from Liverpool, was early yesterday seized by a portion of our High Sea Forces not far from the English coast'and made a prize." The_referer.ee to the " High Sea Forces " was meant, of course, to im- , ply that the German main fleet has j fuil liberty of actio;). Nots the care- } ful smreestion that. tho Lestris belonged to Liverpool, and the inference that it was somewhere near there that she ; was captured. What- axe the facte? i The Brussels and the Lestris were | both captured by small torpedo craft based on Zeebrugge—those ' same torpedo craft that before the battle of Jutland were referred to in German Admiralty announcements as " outpost I boats" whenever they were driven i back into their lair by British patrols. I To suit the exigencies of the moment i they are now promoted to 1 'our High. I Sea Forces." i Tho capture of the Lestris did not i take place oif the coast of England, ; but oif the east coast, within a very I short distance or the Germans' Zeej brugge base. These captures gave the ! German Admiralty tlio chance to exclaim: "This throws an interesting light upon the alleged domination of tho seas." So does the passage 'of 200 British shins through the Cattegat since tho Jutland battle!