The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1917-10-05

erWard Il returning convoy which mas
been formed elncrscs, and. under the
protection furnished to it. takes its
way westward. Occasionally u stray
gler is torpedoed, and mine victims are
ut intervals found.
Holland, though 4 neutral, has her
place in the blockade of the worlds
waters. Eliminating Dutch waters of
floating mines and anchored mines
which have lost their anchorage forces
the Netherlands to maintain an extern
sive force Of trawlers. Her neutrality
would be frequently violated by either
side of the warning nations should she
enforce in any lax manner the marine
law Of the three-mile limit.
In the western Atlantic the repub-
lies Of the United States and Brazil
patrol with light vessels practically
the entire American continent. Cana
dian cruisers have their part In this
work. Due to the naval policy of the
United States every merchant vessel
In United States registry forms a pOr-
ton of the naval forces In SO far as
blockade and defense against the un-
dersea boats are concerned. These
vessels are armed by the United States
navy and naval gunners sail on every
ship.
The principal forces In the Pacific
are japanese cruisers and destrOyerS.
They have taken over the former Ger
man islands OF the Marshall and Mari
anne groups and the east and west
Caroline archipelagoes. The capture
of Tsingtau was assured through the
Japanese naval strategy. They lost
by a mine the cruiser Takachido before
this fortress. Valuable service was
rendered to the British and Australian
cruisers operating in this part of the
world in the shape Of coal and muni-
tons. 1t is a signal fact that Of Japan's
5000 miles of coast no foreign enemy
has succeeded in forcing an entry since
the Peary incident in 1853 and before
that since the attempted Mongol in
yasion in 1881 under Kublai Khan.
The most recent entrant in this strug-
gle is the kingdom of Siam. The kings
yacht and several %antiquated motor
boats form their navy" which block
AIDES in its small way a portion Of
coast where no danger is ever likely to
come, typhoons excepted.
British and Portuguese gunboats
have the duty Of policing the coasts
of German East and Southwest Africa.
From Port Said to Alden the Red sea
;c n,jaf ,ypInr Tho ccrfvnl NJ pritiSh
gunboats.
In the Black sea the upper hand is
still 4 matter of contest. Both con-
tenders to be intent on preserving
their fleets in being" to quote a pet
phrase Of naval s%trategists. Only I'M
important brushes have occurred, but
the addition Of the fugitive German
units, the Breslau and the Goebcn,
have undoubtedly materially strength
ened the Turkish forces. The Germans
to be more than able to defend
their ports recently captured from the
R~Oumaninns, and the Russians eX-
hibit a distastefvl temerity about at
titles have been strewn In these wa
tiers.
In the Baltic the Russian fleet has
thus far pursued a pulley of stunning
any action whatever. AZ least all at
tempts Of German s%trategists to lure
the Russians from their blanket OF
mine fields have failed. True, they lost
earlier in the war Il number of small
units and ut least one capital ship
through ill-considered actions, but since
the first few months Of the war they
to have withdrawn and conceded
the Germans tacit control of the Baltic.
Some small raids are reported, but the
German admiralty has failed to com
ment on them. They do not neglect.
however, to plant great numbers OF
floating mines and thus make the Bal
tic a dangerous sea to navigate. OBJ
servers have reported sighting large
German fleets protected by innulner-
able trawlers us mine sweepers steam
ing through the Baltic. The Russian
evacuation Of Riga merely emphasizes
the German control Of this sea. A sea
attack on Petrograd is q possibility OF