The Alaska daily empire., 1917-02-12
Uncle Sam Would Only Fight For Protection and Recognition of
 Neutral Rights.
FREEDOM OF THE SEAS
Issue in Conflict One of right of Nations of All Kinds Upon
 the High Seas.
By w. w. JERMANE
 (By MuiJ

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, - One oi |the first questions to be decided by ! President Wilson in the event of
 war with Germany would be wheth.
 CT this country should wage a sep. Iarate campaign or cooperate with
 the military and naval forces of the 1 Allies
 Although officials of the state, war land navy departments are unusually |reticient regarding their war plaus, tt imay be said with authority that .t 1 is improbable in any event that the Limited States will actively join the 1 Allies in their present military op. leratiOns.
 1 It was declared today that the aim |or the United States government | was 10 compel recognition Of and Igr1tection for the rights Of neutr&ls, land that it's object would be obscuc- ed by actively participating in the war on the side of the Allies.
 In addition, participation in the AL flied campaign would mean the send. ing of military expedition to one ! of the fronts in Europe and it is ieytremely unlikely that such a move
 would meet with popular approval in 1 this country or acceptable to the AL lilies. The military situation on the Eastern and Western fronts, accord ! ing to the understanding of offic. ials here. is satisfactory and no ad' Idiuonal men are needed.
 First Probable Step. Probably the first step in the plan of the campaign of the United States
 against Germany under ordinary cir ! |cumstances would be the establish
 ment Of a line of speedy cruising
 war vessels several hundred miles ! out in the Atlantic ocean along a line running r,pm Halifax to point
 eastward of Porto Rico and thence southeast toward the coast of Bra, |zn.
 In case of a war with a European
 naval power the existing war plans devised by the naval college in CO., ! operation with the general board of
 the navy, call for the presence of the 1 Atlantic battleship fleet at some con- venient point within the cruising line
 where the fleets full strength can 1 be thrown against an enemy fleet. ! Of course under existing cOndi-
 tions it would be manifestly impos-
 sible for the German government to
 send a fleet of vessels 10 American shores and the existing plans as to cruising vessels would probably be
 modified so as to permit the scouting vessels to accompany the fleet ! AtIaHtiC Fleet Not MOUed.
 No action, however, has been ta. i ken toward moving the Atlantic fleet from it's present winter base at Guam 1 tanamo, where it is engaged in tac- ticaI maneuyers and exercises. It was declared by a high official of the
 navy that no orders had been sent to the fleet to come nOrthward, in spite of the censorship established several days ago over the movements ! of naval vessels.
 This shutting down of the lid on naval movements, it was stated, was primarily for the purpose of prevent | ing the visits of war vessels and aux l diaries to navy yards becoming made [ known.
 The visit of the U.53 to Newport |R. !. last summer and her return
 to her home port after sinking sev- eral merchant vessels off the New England cost, however, was a shock
 to naval officials, who had previous fly believed that the American coast
 would be immune from operations of | submarines because Of the long dis tance from their bases in Germany.
 The crIise of the U-53 and her re- turn without taking on any fuel oil
 or other supplies proved that the ] Atlantic Coast would not be safe from German submarines will be needed | at present to maintain the blockade
 of British, French and Italian waters
 as well as to control the Baltic Sea
 Protection of the Panama Canal
 would be accomplished by the use
 of flotilla of submarines at each
 end of the canal, which would be
 able to keep a hostile fleet from ap-
 preaching within 100 miles of the
 waterway. It is hourly becoming
 evident that the United States has an
 extensive coast line 10 protect and
 yet is not supplies with the types Of vessels best adopted to the purpose
 As a number of our ships are still virtually out of commission for want
 of men, one of the first tasks will
 be to make good the shortage. This cannot be done over night. The
 raising and training of seamen for
 modern fighting ships is a much lon
 ger and more ardous task than rais- ing and training men for the army. lit is recalled that the late William
 Mahan put the case clearly many years ago when he said:
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