Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1915-03-04

CAhD Ut LONOI HI>D N"'
Whatever doubt may have existed regarding Germanys
blockade Of the waters encrclng Great Britain, the United
States has helped to dissipate that doubt by proposing that
this blockade be raised. If the submarine blockade of Great
Britain were not effective, surely it would make little diff
ference to a neutral power whether it continued or not. In
effect the United States has officially recognized Germanys
blockade as such by asking her to raise it.
The Importance of this distinction, and the far-reaching
effect of the course adopted by the government of the United
States, fully appears only when we bear in mind that accord
ing to international law and long established usages Of war
a nation has no right to seek to enforce a blockade unless a
sufficient number of warships are used to make that block
ade effective. This applies to England's newly declared
blockade of Germany also.
Under these circumstances we can readily appreciate
the reasons why the British, as reported, should resent the
efforts of the United States to seek to modify conditions
attending the blockade of both Germany and Great Britain.
The British, having a large number of ships of war,
have experienced no difficulty in practically cutting off food
supplies from the ports of Germany direct. The British in
sisted, on the other hand, that the attempt of the Germans to
declare a blockade of all Great Britain was outside of the
rules of naval warfare, because they were not able to main
tain sufficient force of warcraft to make such a blockade eff
fective, and that the Germans were accordingly guilty of
piracy.
Even while John Bull is insisting that Germany is not
b~lockading, along comes Uncle Sam and asks Germany to stop
blockading British ports, which naturally makes John Bulls
former contention that he was not blockaded look foolish.
Waving all the technicalities as to what constitutes a
legal blockade under established international law, and accept
ing the action of the government of the United States as
tantamount to recognition Of the fact that a blockade of
Great Britain in effect exists. we are brought face to face
with two astounding facts; the intervention of the submarine
boat has revolutionized international law precisely as it has
revolutionized warfare.
AS we have already stated, the long established rule
regarding a blockade was that it must be backed by the actual
presence of a sufficient force of warships to make it danger
GUS for a merchant craft to seek to enter the port or ports
%blockaded, the danger established being made the test of
efficiency.
The first thing to be noted about the application of this
definition of a blockade, is that owing to limitation of the
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formerly impossible to blockade a whole coast of any great
length, and blockades were limited to a few ports at most as
a rule.
Moreover the presence of a %blockading fleet was visible,
and the visiting merchant ship whose commander might be
tempted to run a blockade could testify as to whether the
blockade was efficient and therefore legal under the interna-
tional law. The blockading ships were therefore forced to
remain constantly on guard.
The remarkable feature of the German blockade of
Great Britain is that it meets the test of creating danger and
therefore complying with international law regarding a
blockade, even though no incoming merchant ship may know
how many submarines are at hand or even whether there is
even one submarine in the vicinity.
We are thus brought face to face with the remarkable
fact that whereas the chief aim of the submarine was sup
posed to be to sink great warships, its greatest fort in fu-
ture warfare may lie in the establishing of virtual blockades
against merchant ships and in the Fastening of submission
of a nation to peace terms as a result of cutting off supplies
of that nation, as well as defensive warfare.
Indeed in the light of recent developments we may see
the operations of the submarine revolutionized, Just as it in
turn has revolutionized conditions of surface naval warfare.
1t is possible to equip great battleships with double armored
bottoms and with so many watertight compartments as to
make it difficult to sink them with torpedoes discharged from
submarines. whereas merchant ships could not be thus
guarded.
On the other hand the fact that Germany with a handful
of submarines has been able to make it dangerous for the
owners of neutral craft to take their boats anywhere in the
ocean declared a "war zone" is bound to increase the impor-
lance of the submarine boat as a factor in war operations.
This conclusion is warranted by the promptness with
which the United States government is acting as to the pro-
vision of new submarines on an extensive scale. 1t is easy
to see, moreover, that the usefulness of the submarine will
be greatly extended, when the United States, which leads the
world in these developments, perfects its ocean-gong sub
marines, with corresponding increase in speed and radius and
range and fighting strength.
The U-21, one of the latest German submarines, is claim
ed to have a range of action of over 5000 miles, with ability
to remain away from its base of supplies at least a month.
Even one such craft, lowering along the ocean lanes of the
British transatlantic freight ships, would have tremendous
possibilities of destruction of supplies. Fifty submarines Of
the German U21 class of type. could carry terror to all the
ports of Great Britain; and accepting the strictest construc-
ton of the international law involved, it would not require
a large addition to such a fleet to establish a velitabe block
ade of all Great Britain.
In any event, the world has plainly just begun to realize
the wonderful possibilities of submarine warfare, especially
with craft equipped with the magnetized torpedo which faith
fully seeks its prey no matter how the latter may shift it's