October 10, 1914 
LAND AND WATER 
to it that the enemy 13 rendered impotent. The unfortunate 
thing is that quite a considerable section of the public is of 
opinion that " the Navy is doing nothing " on account of the 
fact that it has done its work so well that the main German 
Fleet prefers to keep out of danger. Will the public which 
demands an impossible Trafalgar be good enough to reaUse 
that for years the German view of things has publicly been stated 
and restated ad nauseum : " Ko matter what the circumstances, 
the plain duty of the German Fleet is to attack. Only in the 
attack can victory reside." 
This attack lia3 not been delivered. It is unlikely to be 
delivered until economic pressure forces it. But why not 1 
Sinijily because the British Navy is too much in the way. 
The lligh Sea Fleet has no prospects whatever of advantage 
by coming out. In consequence it remains inactive. 
To adopt the chess simile, which I have used before — it is 
" in check." The xdtimate result may be " checkmate," or it 
may be merely '" stale mate " (for which the Germans are playing). 
But why expect that Admiral Jellicoe should go ia for a reckless 
•exchange of pieces which at the best could merely provide head- 
lines for the daily press ? 
Or to put it another way, woidd any card player as fourth 
Jiand with the four of diamonds in his hand play his ace to take 
the three ? Germany's game and Germany's hope is that the 
British public, looking for a Trafalgar, will demand the ace to 
be put down. 
I have insisted till all readers must be more or less tired of it 
that the main elements of this war are psychological. I am 
Jifrnid, however, that I must continue to insist on the point. 
In the 8tronj;cst possible fashion I wish to impress tliat Germany's 
f/nme is based on the expectation that presently the British nation 
will demand that the Navy " does something," trusting to luck 
tliat the things really accomplished by it, being inconspicuous, 
will not count. 
A Trafalgar won by " the man in the street " is nn unthink- 
able thing along all the lines of past history. But the past is 
the i»ast. Tlio present war is along hitherto unknown lines. 
To Buy tliat it ia being fought in the streets cf London sounds 
hyperbole ad aJjsurditm. Yet it ia something like the situation. 
A good thousand years ago the all-powcrfuI Athenian Navy 
met its doom because the Democracy put in its oar wrongly. On 
the people of England to-day it depends that the same old 
mistake is not repeated with the same terrible result. 
If the man in the street can be persuaded to crab the Navy 
and to insist on its " doing something," Germany is going to win. 
If, on the other hand, the man in the street will merely rcmalu 
ifldifEerent and " trust the Navy," Germany's chances sink to zero. 
Thus and in such way the tsventieth-eentury Trafalgar has 
to be fought by the public, and the only weapon is blind confi- 
dence in the British Navy. Blind confidence be it noted. It 
may take some doing, but it has to be done. 
ON THE HIGH SEAS 
GENERALLY. 
First place is naturally claimed by 
the Ernden, which, as briefly mentioned 
last week, has now added five to her 
previous bag of six in the Baj* of Bengal, 
and has probably added more since. 
As expected, after shelling Madras she 
made for Pondicherry, where, for no 
apparent reason, she anchored on Sep- 
tember 2ith. She, however, presently 
made off without doing anything, where- 
from we may assiune that she was intent 
on combining a hasty sweeping of boiler 
tubes with such moral efiect as was to 
be obtained by anchoring only littlo 
more than a mile away from Government 
House. 
The Emden steamed away leaving 
Pondicherry imharmed ; but the result of 
her commerce raiding has since come in. 
She has now eleven ships to her credit. 
But— well, eleven is not much out of four 
thousand. To equal the privateers of 
Nelson's days the Emden and her consorts 
must multiply all their captures by 
something like thirty. And wlien, if 
ever, they have done it, the fact 
will still remain that a destruction of 
10 per cent, in the old Great \\'ar 
of an odd hundred years ago did not 
destroy British commerce. The 90 per 
cent, left carried on quite men'ilv. 
The 99 per cent, left over to-day 
are hardly hkely to worry more than 
their predecessors of the last Great 
War. Losses can be created — they are 
bound to be created. But no matter 
how long the German corsairs may 
remain afloat, there is no question of 
their accomphshing any damage that 
really matters. 
Another predatory cruiser has now 
turned up on the East Coast of America, 
and it is also now reported that the 
remaining cruisers at Kiao Chau have 
broken loose. This information is doubt- 
fid. But, be the cruisers many or few, 
the damage that they can do is strictly hmited and their 
ultimate fate is certain. 
Of far more moment is it to record that the Cameroons 
in West Africa have now fallen into our hands, and that the 
Cumberland, stationed in those parts, has captured eight German 
merchant ships and a German gunboat. 
Germany's cruisers (the Emden especially) are putting up a 
very good fight. They are acting from cleverly prearranged 
bases, and most of them ha\e so far cleverly evaded inter- 
ception by our defending cruisers. But there is nothing to 
su""est that this state of affairs can be maintained for more than 
a limited time. It may take v.-eeks or it may take months, but 
sooner or later every German commerce raider will meet her 
fate. Before that occurs considerable damage will no doubt 
be done, but the ultimate failure of the commerce war and the 
probability that it will eventually cost as much or more to 
Germany than the damage inflicted on us is self-evident. 
The Germans do not "appear to be greatly perturbed by the 
loss of trade which we have caused them. At any rate they 
profess not to be, and in matters of this sort it is never wise 
to assume that the enemy is merely bliLfling. They must cer- 
tainlv have calculated that the Biitish Fleet would destroy 
their" over-seas trade and capture all their over-seas possessions. 
The latter was unavoidable ; the former they have minimised 
BO far as possible by laymg up their merchant ships. An instruc- 
tive article in the Times of October 3rd quotes from Ilcrr Ilcineken, 
head of the Nord Deutschcr Lloyd, the \-iew that all Germany 
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