Licking Valley courier. [volume] (West Liberty, Ky.) 19??-current, 1917-03-08
SCISSORS & PAST'Es
Good Things Clipped from ;
Our Exchanges with an :
Occasional Comment
; BY the Editor. :
I19 British Ports
Blocked by Germans.

with deadline Of 1000 MAUI
tical miles to guard, measured
from headIand to headland, 20
miles off shore; with 119 ports,
large and small, to seal up, 80 Of
which, even at low tide, are open
to vessels that can navigate ID
feet of water; with a larger num-
Der of bays and other navigable
intentions to watch than are to
be found anywhere else in the
world in the same length of
straightaway shorelines, Germa-
ny's plan to blockade the British
Isles seems as near a proposal to
accomplish the impossible as any
thing to which any nation has
committed ITSELF" says a state
ment just prepared by the Ma
tional Geographic Society and is
sued from its headquarters at
Washington.
Indeed, undertaking to COM
bat at once the sinuosities of a
shoreline lending itself better to
defense against blockade than
any other of equal length in the
world and the greatest navy civ
ilizatien has ever seen, it is diff
cult to see how success could even
be hoped for by those putting the
plan into execution.
England is so deeply indent-
ed that no part is more than Is
miles from the sea, while Scot
land has the most rambling coast
line of any country in the world.
Ireland is not so deeply in
dented as England and Scotland;
but with all that it has shores
that make the way of the block
ader difficult.
"The vast proportion of the
British shipping industry which
the German submarine blockade
is attempting to destroy defes
our comprehension. In norma
years an average of 2l4 ships ar,
, rive at United Kingdom ports
! from foreign waters every day in
the year. In addition to that
there are $50 arrivals from home
ports every day in the year Of
ships in coastwise trade.
British merchant ships have
: agreater aggregate tonnage thar
} those of all other countries of thu
, world together. The merchan
marine of that nation includes
nearly $4,000 ships of all kinds
Of these, about $500 are sailing
ships and $500 steam vessels EN-
ployed in the home trade. Their
are approximately 1900 ships en-
gagged in sailing between BntisI
and foreign ports. These latte
nave an average capacity of NOR
/ than $500 net register tons.
= How rapidly Great Britain
has been replacing the losses sus
:, aimed by her shipping as a re
' suit of Germany's submarine al
, .acks is disclosed by the fact tina
e 1T the end Of 1916 there were 46
steam vessels under constructio
n IN British shipyards, more tina
O half of them being ships of NOR
than 5000 tons burden. The az
gregate capacity Of these ships
i,7SS, 600 tons, so that both i
tonnage and in number the ne,
n craft are replacing those sunk b
the enemy.
Few countries in the worl
y are so dependent on the import;
o zion of foodstulfs us the Unite
Kingdoms, and for her not
s possess the strongest navy in tn
world would be to leave her {
II all nations the most vulnerable
= Probably 80 per cent of all til
y food her 45, 100000 people col
Z sumo is brought by ships engal
q ed in foreign trade.
ION the other hand, the splel
/, did coal desposits and the abunC
10 ant supplies of iron make BIRTHS
n industries largely free from blocl
ade dangers. Producing ont
fourth of the worlds coal, til
- United Kingdom has little to rei
" from a coal shortage, no matte