ADMIRAL’S DISCLOSURE.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15274, 26 June 1923, Page 2

ADMIRAL’S DISCLOSURE.

HOW WE HELPED THE HUNS. WAR NEEDLESSLY PROLONGED Rear-Admiral M. W. W. P. Consett, who was British Naval Attache in Scandinavia during the war, and subsequently Naval Adviser to the Supreme Council, should have called his admirable book (“The Triumph of Unarmed Forces”) “How We Helped the Huns.” For that we helped them is the real moral of his extraordinary disclosures. With his collaborator, Captain O. 11. Daniel, R.N , he shows that, by applying economic pressure and enforcing our rights at sea, we could have shortened the war by months and years and saved thousands of lives. This is a work of the first political importance, as it gives definite proof from official sources of what many suspected at the time of the war. “The Unarmed Forces” are, of course, the economic fo;ces. “The problem With which Germany was faced from the very beginning was an economic. onC; she was not self-sup-porting, and the supplies upon which she depended had to come from oversea. The four years’ Great War was a struggle for the mastery of these supplies.” , The Vital Channel. The supplies reached Germany through Scandinavia and Holland, and Scandinavia was really the vital channel. From the very beginning goods poured into Germany from Scandinavia, and for over two years Scandinavia, received from the British Empire and the Allied countries stocks which, together with those from neutral countries, exceeded all previous quantities and literally saved Germany from starvation ” All the pipes by which these supplies flowed to Germany could have been closed by this 'country with energy and will, and without any risk of war with the United States. This Admiral Consett makes clear. _ “There is probably no case in history in which the economic forces at the disposal of a nation-on the outbreak of war have been so great as those that this country held in August, 1914. It was only when, from sheer necessity, really effective pressure was brought to bear that the position of Germany—always desperate—became hopeless.” All Admiral >Consett's proposals in the end were carried out, but not until the war had been protracted by at least two years beyond the date when it might have been decided. We did everything too late, and the result of our neglect to use our deadliest weapons against the Germans is our exhaustion to-day. Filling their Pockets. Scandinavia depended on this country for coal —which it could got nowhere else —and for a hundred other things, and it would have yielded to pressure. Admiral Consett points out that Scandinavians —even in Sweden — were not unsympathetic to us They were naturally ready enough to fill their pockets when we were slack and negligent; hut they were not unfriendly. Diagrams and tables prove that we, who controlled the sea, allowed enormous quantities of foodstuffs, lubricating oil, fats and nickel to reach Germany from Scandinavia, when by withholding our coal we could —and afterwards did —stop the traffic. “British coal was a vital cog in the Scandinavian industrial machine. It was not so much a commodity as a source of irresistible power. It was dispensed with lavish hand and with but little regard for its war value. It was our prime source of economic pressure.” Though figures are repellant, this table must be given as illustrating the extent to, which-we permitted Germany to be fed by neutrals. It states the foodstuffs, received from Scandinavia by Britain and Germany before and during the war:— Britain. Germany. 1913 344,785. tons. 252,128 tons 1915 275,473 tons. 561,234 tons. 1916 191,916 tons. 620,756 tons. The amount of food exported to Britain was, roughly, halved; the amount .exported to Germany was simultaneously more than doubled. And' our Government looked on, when it had the power to cut off this vast Importation —looked on till tl-e war was nearly lost.