The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1914-12-19
The Command of the Seas

The sinking of four German cruisers by the English fleet in the
south Atlantic this week served to call attention o a phase of the pres
ent European war that has been more or less a mystery to a great many
people. The apparent inactivity of the navies of Great Britain and Ger
many has been the theme of much discussion and many shafts of sar-
casm have been hurled at England as mistress of the seas Already,
however, some light is being thrown upon the naval policy of Great
Britain, and more people are coming to realize that tit is filled with wis
dom.
"The command of the sea" is an expression that has been SO long
familiar that we are surprised to realize that we have had a entirely
indefinite comprehension of how this power would be applied in case of
necessity, and how it would operate. As a matter of fact, there are
many ways in which such domination can make itself effective, and in
the present hostile operations it has come S a complete blockade of
Germany and her fleet, in spite of the actually formidable power of the
latter. What this means to Germany, and the vital results of such a
blockade to Germany, are told in N editorial in the fourth war issue Of
the Scientific American of Il December 5, as follows:
The command Of the sea! Let us consider what the acceptance of
the blockade of her main fighting fleet has meant to Germany. In the
first place, it has resulted IN the complete disappearance from the seven
seas of her vast merchant marine, such of her ships as escaped capture
having fled to neutral ports Or to her own protected bases on the North
sea and the Baltic. Her colonial possessions, in the acquisition and up
building of which she has expended so much energy and treasure, being
absolutely cut off from any military or naval assistance, have passed one
by one to the enemy. Her warships OF foreign stations, after a series
of exploits in commerce destroying and engagements with the enemy
which will form n of the brightest chapters in the history of her
navy, re being gradually sunk o. driven into neutral ports. Finally
her oversee trade, except through a few neutral ports has ceased to
exist
But it is not in these respects that the silent victory Of the war is
taking its pressure most keenly felt in this hfe-and-death struggle OF
the great German empire. 1t S in its bearing upon the military oper-
atoms in France and Belgium that the British command of the sea is
exercising al influence, SO dominant that it already promises to be the
decisive factor in the whole situation.
Had the conditions been reversed; had the German fleet been su
peior in strength or mad the weaker fleet, by virtue of its superior ma
terrell, personnel, strategy and tactics, been able to defeat the British and
French in a series of decisive engagements. not a single regiment OF
British troops could have been sent to the western theatre OF war. AS
it is, the enemys troop ships come and go with absolute IMMUNITY, while
within a few hundred miles, the second strongest batleship fleet in the
world lies impoenty at anchor and watches the gradual recruiting,
training and transportation to the fighting line of some two million arm
ed troops of the enemy, without being able to strike a blow to assist the
valiant German army of the west.