Photograph by A. W. Cutler 

 THE PICTURESQUE) SUN-DIAIv house : HOEMWOOD, surrey 



The ordinary blockade is not subject to 

 these limitations. A blockade established 

 upon the surface of the ocean can main- 

 tain a constant lookout over a wide ex- 

 panse of the sea. By use of search- 

 lights, it can be carried on at night as 

 well as by day. Cruisers may be coaled 

 at sea and provided with ammunition 

 openly. The submarine may not. With- 

 out a base or a hovering fleet of "mother 

 ships," the submarine cannot do continu- 

 ous duty on blockade or otherwise. 



If it is planned to operate the subma- 

 rine blockade of the British Isles in re- 

 lays, the number of ships on duty at a 

 given port will be thereby halved, to the 

 detriment of the blockade's effectiveness. 

 Two submarines to a port could hardly 

 maintain a blockade in the condition 

 which the ordinary interpretation of in- 

 ternational law has required to give it 

 recognition among neutrals. 



British domination of the sea has not 

 come about by chance. England's geo- 

 graphic limitations have compelled her to 

 k:eep the avenues of ocean traffic open 



through constant readiness to render na- 

 val protection to her carrying trade ; and it 

 is the result of her insular position that her 

 activities have developed on sea and land. 



What Nature has always done for the 

 children of the wild by rendering them 

 adaptable, through habit and through 

 equipment, to the environment in which 

 they are placed, the English people have 

 done for themselves. Cribbed, cabined, 

 and confined upon a group of islands lim- 

 ited in area and capable of inadequate 

 productiveness, even with the most inten- 

 sive of cultivation, they were forced, first, 

 to command the avenues of supply for 

 themselves and, in order to meet the in- 

 creasing expense of such necessity, sec- 

 ond, to develop their manufacturing re- 

 sources to the highest degree. 



To this they owe the great number of 

 ports which they now possess and which, 

 by their very numbers, render a blockade, 

 however attempted, a herculean task. A 

 clearer example of how nations are lim- 

 ited or advanced by their geographic en- 

 vironment could hardly be found. 



93 



