June 5, 1915. 
LAND AND BOATER 
against which no appreciable argxunents (of 
the military character at least) can be put for- 
ward : This is the course of registration. 
The adoption of a register upon which all 
men of military age, or, indeed, beyond what is 
commonly called the military age, should be 
set down : their physical efficiency, their place 
of residence, their occupation and aptitudes, 
would not only be a step necessarily prelimin- 
ary to any general enrolment, but of the utmost 
value to the voluntary system itself should it 
be continued, and an instrument indispensable 
to any future organisation, voluntary or com- 
pulsory, of the total national fighting power. 
Tne drawing up of such a register was ad- 
vocated by the present writer many months 
ago, in the first phase of the war. He can see 
no military argument against it. Its military, 
value is obvious, and though it would have 
been far more useful had it come into existence 
last summer, it can stiU be of high value even 
at this late turning-point of the campaign — for 
the turning-point we have, without doubt, 
reached and are now in the act of passing. 
H. BELLOC. 
THE WAR BY WATER. 
By A. H. POLLEN. 
NOTE. — This article has been submitted to the Press Bureau, nbich does not object to tbe publication as censored, and takes no 
responsibility for tbe correctness of tbe statements. 
BUBMARINES-£? COMMUNICATIONS. 
DURING the past week we have suffered 
the heavy loss of two battleships — 
Triuviph and Majestic — by submarine 
attack at the Straits. The mine-layer 
Princess Irene blew up in Sheerness Harbour with 
a lamentable loss of life, practically all the officers 
and men being killed. The German war on mer- 
chantmen has been quite extraordinarily virulent, 
a dozen ships having been torpedoed — one Ameri- 
can ship, the Nebraskan, and five other neutrals 
among them. The previous week's lull betokened, 
then, no weakening of this unscrupulous cam- 
paign. The shifty reply to President Wilson's 
Note was received just as the news of the attack 
on the Nebraskan arrived, so that the whole ques- 
tion has become dangerously acute. Finally, E 11 
has repeated the achievement of E 14 by crossing 
sank in nine minutes. She must have been expect- 
ing trouble, for all the officers but three and 
nearly all the crew were saved. The Turks givei 
great credit to the German officers for not having 
shelled the destrovers and other craft that hurried 
up to save Triumph's crew. It would have been so 
easy, the account says, to have kiUed the sailors 
struggling in the water by shrapnel and to have 
blown up the rescuing British boats. The noble 
feelings of the German officers made them forbear 
from so cruel a proceeding. The account goes on 
to say, as if in strong contrast to this becoming 
humanity, that the submarine was i^ursued for a 
long time by British destroyers, but escaped un- 
damaged. Perhaps the pursuit is a better ex- 
planation of the German forbearance than this 
alleged humanity. According to this account. 
Triumph was accompanied by another battleship, 
the .Se^ of Marmora,, sinking transporti and ex^! '^J^^ZZflZtH '^f^^l^^^!^ 
ploding a torpedo right amongst the quays of Con 
6tantinople. 
Both this and the sinking of our battleships 
were singularly brilliant performances. But it 
would be a mistake to limit our interest in them by 
looking only at the skill and enterprise displayed. 
The submarine here plays a new role. Each side is 
using it to attack the communications of the other. 
Our transports and warships are the base of the 
forces on shore. If they can be sunk or driven off, 
the army wiU be isolated. The communications of 
the German Turkish Army lie across the Sea of 
Marmora. There are no suitable roads overland 
into the Peninsula. Reinforcements, ammunition, 
supplies, must come, and the wounded must go 
back, by water transport. Which side stands to 
lose most by its communications being disturbed ? 
Surely not ours. The moral of the Turks, both at 
the front and at home, is poor. It seems that the 
German domination has not become sweeter with 
the failure of all Turkish military effort. If our 
submarines can continue their ravages, the enemy 
should be faced with a position at least at difficult 
and disconcerting as our own. 
THE LOSS OF THE BATTLESHIPS. 
Triumph, according to the Turkish reports, 
was steaming slowly with her nets out, soon 
after midday on Tuesday, May 25, when she was 
sighted and fired at by a German submarine. The 
torpedo, it is said, tore through the nets and, 
striking the ship amidships, exploded. Triumph 
destroyers and scouts were cruising in the neigh- 
bourhood to cover the battleship against sub- 
marine attack. This is partly confirmed by the 
Admiralty's note of May 26, which says that 
the submarine was unsuccessfully chased byj 
destroyers and patrolling craft until after dark. 
Of the loss of Majestic we have no details at all, 
except that she was supporting the army on the 
Gallipoli Peninsula and was torpedoed in the 
course of the morning. This also, then, seems, as 
one would suppose, to have been a daylight attack.: 
THE NEW SITUATION. 
It has, of course, for a long time been obvious 
that the Germans could and would send sub- 
marines to the Mediterranean, and for at least 
three weeks their presence there has been so well 
known that large rewards have been publiclyj 
offered for information that would lead to the dis- 
covery of their bases. Readers of the daily papers 
will have noticed that the Echo de Paris announced 
last week that Tchesne, quite near Smyrna, was 
known to be a German submarine base. Another, 
it was reported from Mitylene, on Tuesday, has 
been discovered. There have been frequenl; 
bombardments of the Asia Minor coast in the 
neighbourhood — no doubt all suspected bases have 
been receiving attention. The Jeanne 'd'Arc is 
reported, in the course of a reconnoitring expedi- 
tion, to have seized a large Turki.sh craft having 
many thousands of cases of benzine on board, and, 
further, to have destroyed several benzine depots 
on shore. A blockade of Smyrna and the Adriatic 
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