September 19, 1914 
LAND AND WATER 
Mir TO ILLUSTRATE ArPEOXIiMTELT THK NEUTBAL CO-tsTS AND INLAXI> COHmlNICATIONS BY WHICH FOODS AND RAW MATKKIALS CAN Ba 
OOT UNTO OEBMANT AND AUSTRIA. TH« DOTTID LINKS EirBESBNT THE ArPUOXIMATK EXTENT OF DKLIVERT AREA. 
THE WAR BY WATER. 
By FRED T. JANE. 
THE NORTH SEA. 
/A T the time of writing the past week has been 
/^k uneventful so far as any fighting is concerned. 
/ ^ A sweep has been made so far as the Heligo- 
/ ^L land Bight, but no hostile warships were sighted. 
-^ -^^ Tlio sweep must not be* regarded as ineffec- 
tive on that account, for it musti have had a, 
< cojisidcrable moral value as indicating to the Gemians that wo 
are both ready and willing to attack. 
By order of the Admiralty (which has secured all the 
more willing obedience from issuing its directions in the form 
of a polite "request") all lights along the coast have been 
greatly reduced; and in certain places the lighthouses have 
been left unlit. To this latter circunistancc has been attri- 
buted the loss of the armed liner Oceanic, of 17,274 gross 
tonnage and 21 knot speed. She is alleged to have been 
wrecked, but no official details are forthcoming. Unofficial 
stories range from her having gone full-speed ashore on an 
unlit coast to having been submarined and l>eached. 
Tlio losses of trawlers and neutrals by North Sea, mines 
indicates a pleasing diminution, which may be attributed 
partly to the circumstance that Admiralty advice as to courses 
to be followed is now more strictly observed, and to the 
untiring efforts of the mine sweepers. 
Special regulations have been promulgated, and came 
into force on Monday, as to vessels entering the Thames. These 
must now all call at the Tongue liglitship or at th» Margate, 
Deal, or Dover lightiliips, and take on board a licensed pilot. 
Outgoing vessels have to take iii.slruclions as to the exact 
course to be followed. This, of course, means (liat mines have 
been or are about to be laid in certain places as a precaution 
against Germaus seeking to lay mines under the British or 
a neutral flag. ^ -rr n j 
Some remarks of mine last week on the subject of Holland 
appear to have been misunderstood by one or two rcadeas, 
who fail to realise that the Dutch will presently be in 
the same invidious position as the Danes were in the 
Napoleonic wars. Behind Holland is Germany — a long- 
dreadcd power which has suddenly become very polite, for 
Dutch ports offer useful facilities for food supply. If the 
Dutch fleet is wanted, Germany will no more hesitate to sei'/.o 
it and use Dutch harbours as a war base against us than she 
hesitated to use Belgian territory as a base against France. 
Tlie immediate result would be double work for our North 
Sea patrols. Against this is to be put the utility of Holland 
as a convenient neutral through whom German supplies can 
be obtained. Just at present these two circumstances more or 
loss balance each other for cither side, but this balance can 
only be maintained so long as the Germans do not obtain control 
of French harbours. The value of Holland as a source of food 
import to Germany would then decline appreciably, while the 
value of taking possession of Dutch harbours and Dutch 
torpedo craft would rise correspondingly. 
On the other hand, supposing the Gennans to be beaten 
back and contained at bay in their own country, the question of 
whether we can afford to allow them to be fed through Holland 
will assuredly rise as a problem of naval strategy. The busiues.<» 
of the Fleet is to fight the enemy's fleet if it comes out, and 
if it will not come out to put ou suflkient economic pressure 
to compel a sortie or surrender. 
Wo know that already, on account of the blockade, some 
I.jOO idle ships lie at Hamburg, that food prices in Gennany 
are very high, and that the scarcity of raw material has led 
17' 
