LAND AND WATER 
January 9, 1915, 
more or less leisurely fashion. The inference is that Ger- 
many ia ahead of the rest of the world in the matter of 
high explosives. 
Tho integral idea of all Dreadnought anti-torpedo pro- 
tection consists of some internal armour on vital spots, and 
solid bulkJieads. To meet this an American naval officer 
invented a torpedo which is practically an eight-inch gun 
in miniature. On contact it does not explode in the ordinary 
fashion, but instead discharges a high explosive shell into the 
enemy's inside. 
The idea is not exactly novel: because a good forty 
years ago the Americans designed a ram called the Alarm, on 
somewhat similar principles. 
Tho idea failed because the Alarm had to attack under 
fire, and because the ram proved itself at that period efficient 
without ulterior aid. 
To-day, however, things have altered, and there is un- 
doubtedly reason to imagine tliat the Germans have some 
adaption of the American invention mentioned above. 
THE HIGH SEAS GENERALLY. 
The most important event of the past week is un- 
doubtedly the American Note. It is couched in very mild 
and courteous language, and entirely devoid of anything 
which could in any way be regarded as a threat. But it does 
very clearly ebtablish the possibility of a situation which I 
discussed in one of the earliest of these articles. 
In subsequent issues I have shown at some length how 
German attacks on British trade reacted on Germany in the 
Pacific, owing to the fact tliat neutrals suffered as much as 
we did, and how such results as they secured were nega- 
tived accordingly. 
Now, tliere is no question whatever that America is hit 
by our interference with German trade. Not improbably 
she is hit as badly as Germany is hit. I have not the space 
necessary for a full consideration of details, but, in any case, 
the broad issue is the only thing that really matters. And 
this isBue is that, just as in the American Civil War of fifty 
years' ago we suffered from the Federal Blockade of tfce 
Southern States and individual British traders of ours sought 
to recoup themselves with " blockade-runners," so, to-day, in- 
dividual American traders seek to recoup themselves with a 
modern and up-to-date form of blockade-running. 
Here, however, the situation materially changes. In the 
American Civil War cargoes had to be run in direct to 
Charleston or elsewhere on the Confederate coast, and there 
they were exchanged for cargoes of other goods, which had to 
be run out again. In a word, it was all plain sailing. 
In this war, however, there is no such thing as blockade- 
running to German ports. Trade is generally consigned to 
neutral ports, and all blockade-running takes place on land. 
The net result of this is that the " right of search " on 
tlie water is considerably negatived where value for money I&' 
concerned. The really acute " blockade-runner " is apt to 
find a way round any rule of The Hague Convention; and 
as a general rule we may take it that his operations do not 
properly commence till his " contraband " is on the conti- 
nent of Europe. To that extent, therefore, the naval " right 
of search " is more or less farcical, or, at any rate, more 
likely to inconvenience the honest American trader than the 
American blockade-runner. 
Further, it may be observed that we have an inalienable 
right to ask Continental neutrals to prevent the smuggling of 
contraband, and that in a general way our desires have been 
conceded. They would be more easily conceded still perhaps 
were our list of contraband reduced to the things that really 
matter most— say, petrol, copper, rubber, and foodstuffs. 
We have placed a ban on materials suitable for Zeppelin 
envelopes. But could we prevent Germany from obtaining 
petrol, we might well allow her to waste her money on silk of 
which she could make no usel I am inclined to think that 
there is a good deal of contraband which might be dispensed 
with, without loss to us and with advantage to neutrals, whose 
" benevolent neutrality " would be very valuable. 
Of one thing we may be certain. Germany does not con- 
duct her elaborate and expensive Press campaigns in neutral 
countries for the empty benefit of moral sympathy. She has 
a clear eye to mat«rial benefits which may accrue from " bene- 
volence." 
We may do well, therefore, to follow her esample: the 
more so as we could easily abrogate for this war a great deal 
of that right of search " which, when first formulated, was 
based on the idea of war between countries pos.sessino. ex- 
tensive coastlines. The coastlines of both Germany" and 
Austria are so relatively small that much of the original idea 
IS correspondingly Euperfluous. 
_ To this extent, therefore, the naval " right of search" 
la obsolete; and. things being thus, we may do well to aban- 
don it so far as may be. Wo are not fighting for legal tradi- 
tions, but for ordinary existence. And — so far as can ba 
gauged at present — things are such that the benevolence or. 
otherwise of neutrals will turn the scale in a very tight fight, 
NORTH SEA AND CHANNEL. 
On January 1, about 2.30 a.m., during a gale in tho 
Channel, the old b>Tttleship Formidable was struck by a mioQ 
or torpedo. Accounts vary as to whether there were one or 
two explosions. The ship sank in three-quarters' of an hour, 
only about twenty-five per cent, of her crew being saved. 
In view of the weather conditions prevailing at the time, 
a mine is more probably tlie cause than a submarine, though, 
as our E9 torpedoed the Ilela in a considerable sea, the possi- 
bility of submarine attack cannot be altogether disregarded. 
If so, it represents very high technical skill on tho part of 
the enemy, plus a very considerable amount of luck, for tho 
Formidable must certainly have been encountered by acci- 
dent, and also we have never yet heard of a night attack by 
submarines. 
A mine is consequently much more probable, especially 
since during the recent heavy gales a good many must have 
broken adrift. In the Russo-Japanese War the Japanese 
oruisjcr Takasago was lost in almost identical circumstances, 
and some time after the war had ceased one or two merchant 
ships met disaster from mines which had broken adrift in 
past gales and floated about ever since. 
Theoretically, of cour^se, a mine which breaks adrift 
should automatically become innocuous, but in actual prac- 
tice there are bound to be one or two equivalents of the occa- 
sional misfire which happens with a gun. 
We may, I think, acquit the Germans of deliberately 
having sown floating or drifting mines in the Channel and 
North Sea. So far as the latter is concerned, the circum- 
stance that their battle-cruisers came out for the East Coast 
Raid seems conclusive evidence against any haphazard and 
non-systematic mine sowing there; and since their submarinss 
h.avo more than once been reported in the Channel, the same 
thing would apply. A drifting mine is just as likely to be 
hit by a friend as by a foe. 
Along this line of argument one must put the loss of tho 
Formidable into the same category as the loss of the Bulwark 
— that is to say, pure chance and accident. 
Some of my readers have conceived an impression that 
infernal machines were introduced on board both vessels, but 
this theory is untenable for at least two definite reasons. In 
the first place, were deliberate internal destruction sought, 
far more important fighting units would have been selected. 
In the second place, the organisation of a British, or, for 
that matter, any other man-of-war, is such that no matter tho 
will to do so, tlie accomplishment would not be possible. The 
count against Germany in real crimes against civilisation is 
sufficiently heavy to obviato any necessity for further 
imaginary ones. 
As for the Formidable herself, she was no loss to speak 
of as a fighting unit. A good ship in her day, the Dread- 
nought era rendered her obsolete before her time. The really 
serious loss, as the Times naval correspondent has insisted, is 
in the matter of personnel, because while good soldiers can be 
made in a few months, it takes as many years to make a good 
sailor. 
Fortunately, we have a considerable supply of trained 
men; but the supply is not inexhaustible, and wo are adding 
ships to the Navy more quickly than we are losing them, and 
the new ships in all oases require larger crews than did tho 
old ones. Consequently, though the material loss of the 
Formidable may be relatively insignificant, tho loss in per- 
sonnel is of the nature of a disaster, quite apart from the 
ordinary ethical meaning of the word where human life is 
involved. 
From January 5 to January 11 inclusive the Victoria Gallery, 123, 
Victoria Street, ia occupied by an exhibition of competitors' work m 
the competition organised by Colour, the shilling monthly magazine 
which is doing good bervice in Uie furtherance and support of modern 
British and Continental art. Tho exhibition is extremely interesting, 
representing as it docs the efforts of new, and in many cases unknown, 
aspirants to .artistic success; here and there crudity is evident in the 
work shown, but there is sufficient of talent in many of the drawings 
to command notice, and here and there one may find work that jiasses 
beyond mere talent. The judges of the competition include the lead- 
ing British artists. 
Is War atul the World's Life, of which Messrs. Smith, KlJer 
and Co. have now issued a five-shilling edition, Colonel Maude follows 
out the Clausewitz theory of war as a part of a nation's development, 
and shows clearly how Clausewitz, Eernh.ardi, and tho whole school 
of German philosophers and national guides went wrong in not 
recognising that the survival of the fittest meant the fittest in an 
ethic.ll sense. Although originally published six years ago, the book 
was written with a view to such a situ.ntion as has arisen out of the 
German thirst for doininance, and embodies the sound, reasoned views 
of a practical writer on the principal topic of the day. 
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