LAND AND .WATER 
May 15, 1915. 
of the Channel to the other. Not a sin-Ic attack 
was successfuiiy directed against any one of them. 
And against all — except hospital ships — sub- 
marine attacks, even without warning, would have 
been within the accepted rules of war, and justi- 
fied by a direct military purpose. The absence 
of attack on tlse transports and warships v/hen 
properly protected ; the failure of the attack (in 
passengers wljo laughed at the threat did so 
because tliey had absolute confidence in the pro- 
tection that the British Navy could give them. To 
accent them as passengers was an implied under- 
taking that this confidence was not misplaced. If 
we could not spare them destroyers, could we not 
at least have seen that, once off the coast of 
Ireland, the ship had an escort of patrol vessels ? 
lu Ts i- 1 1 PC ■ \ 7i — n . V \^'' ii^icii.u, iii-o aiiiu uiiu cui escorc oi pacroi vessels; 
the Heligoland alia, r) on the fast battle-cruiser Such vessels had, in fact, accompanied the Gnlf- 
w^rf liffl^'if. "'"^T^ «^,"^^"«?o"« P^t for- light, and though they were not able to save her 
^ard before the war. The submarine is a slow- from being torpedoed it was one of these vessels 
,ThT£ TLi '^'T'"' ^"^ "^"^ ^^; ^'' T'^' ^"^^ '^^' ^^^^ ^''^'y «^"' ^'^ her alive before she lank 
Hpf.rf.n if ' "'' Pr^;r r^^?/ 1^'^ ?"'• ^'^^^^t not an escort have saved a thousand lives 
He IS defenceless against attack, and finds safety on Friday last? 
only in evasion. The situation could be sum- Captain Turner admits that he was warn. ' 
wn[;?f^n "fl '■, f^'^T'''' ''.^'1 .r' ^""{^r"' °^ '^' ^^'^^^"^^ °f submarines, though not S at le 
waters patrolled by destroyer, that they could not was told of the sinking of the three steamers I have 
show themselves m the neighbourhood of ships, if named. And in following his old route and n 
destroyers were m their company; lastly, that in dropping his snccd to seventeen and eighteen 
daylight a big ship at high speed might be safe knots, he says he was actinrso S as he was Ible 
from even a close-range attack if she were to, under " instructions." DM the Admiralty in 
efficiently conned and skilfully handled. 
It would seem, then, that no fast liner, either 
going at its top speed or avoiding an habitual 
or expected route, or with a destroyer or two in 
company, should be in any danger whatever. It 
is the fact that these precautionary measures 
struct him to follow the usual homev^rard course on 
the supposition that the pirates, after all the Ava'rn- 
mgs they had given, would certainly be lookinr^ for 
him elsewhere ? Was he told to go slow because it 
would be a greater risk to wait for a pilot in the 
Mersey than to be at the mercy of any waylaying 
v^f^Z nf ^Z^Z 1 • i^^^--"-"'Y,7 ''■^■"^"/^^'^ iviersey man to be at the mercy of any wavlayin'^ 
we.e at once so obvious and so well known that submarine in the danger zone ? Would not Kh 
makes the omission to adopt any one of them so forms of danger Ce been averted h.d X ^b n 
cW l"^ 11 '^V%' "f '^.' Lvsitania. Although made a detour^at twenty-fi?e knots and so arrv^ 
capable of twentv-five knots, she was EToiu!? barelv -jf thp r^v^^^nr^ihc^ i,^ ^^vu ivnutb ana so arrivea 
within a mile or two of the route which, time out of It is cWr tbnt v-p ,?n T.of ,. + i *i p n 
mmd, every home-bound Atlantic liner has fol- story and Xtwl do 1?.^°^ ^^^ ^T°'^ ^^'^ !"" 
the Candidate, and of the Centurion, and the at- 
tempt to sink tv/o others in these waters mio-ht 
have been notice enough that the Lusitania was' in 
a danger zone. But to make sure, the German 
Ambassador in America had given every possible 
publicity to the intention to sink her, if it could 
be done. The warning v/as repeated to individual 
paasengers by telegrams addressed to them person - 
has done so well for the merchant service that the 
present disaster is doubly conspicuous. And it is 
the more regrettable from the fact that, while the 
criminality of Germany cannot be disputed our 
competence to combat it can be. 
THE DARDANELLES. 
Since I wrote last week, no official news of the 
ally. Note that the urgency oTthis eSt t^d^ter progSss1n\rDa;d:n:E hT t W^^^ 
Americans from travellin? in her affnrr^^.^ r,« licriff ^r, fi,. ^Itl uA. •''^^^^^^ 
light on the Naval share in those operations, but of 
imolhcial news we have a good deal of an extra- 
ordinarily important and interesting character 
Mr Ashmead-Bartlett, who viewed the operations 
at Gapa Tepe from H.M.S. London, has cabled the 
most brilliant description of the landing of the 
Americans from travelling in her afforded no 
reason for supposing that, if a submarine got with- 
in striking range, the Lusitania would be stopped 
and told to disembark her passengers. Two in- 
ferences only were possible. The thing was a bluff 
placement by over 12.000 tons anyXr piss ^^ £y1t™ t ftTdiEl^'^t^- ,• . 
snip m use. Her continuance in the Atlantic ser i„h nf SJ^L "^i ■ • ainicult and complicated 
vice was perhaps the most strikin? of all visible ,hL ,„ h, t "''""^ ■",?'''"'? I=<«">^. "f towing 
evidences of our command of thesfa w" » ihere ^.»™ h t"'^' ""f 'l" "^ "''^ ^^ "'S^'' """l. " 
no ■■ vital need " to safeguard so tremendo, ,,1^ T ' *"*"; "''='><«"?'''' ^ay "fter day until eveW- 
embo<!imentofonrnavalTrestigeV ° Zll ll, 'P'"?.''?"'' '^"^ l-fartily sick of t^e 
openly and ubiquitously given. %^'!'IS,itZ ^^^^^^Zifo^t ^^1'^^^^ ^ 
