Aj XX J.1 i-' 
Xi. XI -iw* 
t.JL. ^ J-J ^V < 
THE WAR BY WATER. 
By A. H. POLLEN. 
HOTE This article his been submitted to the Press Bureaa, which does not object to the pnbUMtian u censored, and fakes n* 
responsibility for tlie correctness ol the ttatemcntt. 
SINCE Italy became a belligerent, and en- 
tirely altered the prospective role of the 
Austrian lleet by threatening the territory 
iu which its ports are situated with inva- 
sion, there has been no other change of any. 
moment in the naval situation. If the United 
States becomes a belligerent, there will be an im- 
portant change, because the strength of the Allies 
in the North Sea will have reached a point as will 
relieve the English military command of all 
anxiety as to raids or invasions. And President 
.Wilson's Note seems to make the belligerencj'^ of 
the United States far m.ore likely — a question 
that I will discuss at greater length below. In 
the meantime, there has been a certain amount of 
activity in the Baltic, in the Adriatic and in the 
Black Sea, but none of the actions have been of 
first-class importance. 
THE GERMAN THREAT TO RIGA. 
We have now some further information as to 
what took place north of Libau and between Goth- 
land and the Gulf of Riga, on June 3, 4, and 6. 
The first stories that reached us led one to hope 
that quite serious damage might have been done 
to certain units of the German battle fleet. But, 
while it is not specifically contradicted that no 
battleship was hurt, it seems more probable that 
the only casualties suffered by the respective sides 
were the loss of the former mine-layer Yenesei by 
the Russians, and the loss of the transport Hin- 
denhurg and a destroyer by the Germans, and the 
wounding of one other German destroyer and a 
cruiser. The German occupation of Libau creates 
a somewhat anomalous position, and seems to have 
led the temporary holders of what is neither a 
naval port nor an arsenal into certain adA'entures 
which have not turned out very successfully. On 
June 3 and 4 a squadron of ten battleships were 
sent to operate in the neighbourhood of the Gulf 
of Riga. This squadron was accompanied by 
destroj'ers, cruisers, and other auxiliaries. But 
the approaches to the Gulf were protected by 
Russian submarines, who, on meeting thfs 
Armada, fired several torpedoes at the ships and 
dropped mines over the courses it was assum.ed 
they were going to take. The submarines had to 
dive before they were able to verify the effects of 
their torpedoes. But explosions were heard, and 
it is believed some battleships were struck. On 
the following day a second encounter between sub- 
marines and German vessels took place due north 
of Libau, between the Island of Gothland and the 
small coast town of Windau. In this encounter 
one German destroyer and transport were sunk, 
a small cruiser and another destroyer hit and 
damaged. The damaged cruiser was towed back 
to Libaii. Two days later, on the 6th, a German 
reconnaissance, supported by " units of great 
power," found submarines in its course and with- 
drew, but not before the Yenesei had been tor- 
pedoed. So much for the news. 
It is difficult to give any connected explana- 
tion of what these different manoeuvTcs may sig- 
nify. If the German battleship squadron con- 
sisted only of pre-Dreadnoughts, it would hardly 
have ventured to enter the Gulf of Riga, v.here 
the more powerful Russian fleet could apparently 
have trapped it. And one does not quite under- 
stand why the Germans would risk their rr.ain 
Dreadnought fleet in waters that are mined and 
frequented by submarines, unless the military 
object were of extreme importance. But the 
occupation of Libau and its rumoured conversion 
into a submarine base does seem to show that the 
German invasion of Courland was intended to be 
something more than a demonstration. It is pos- 
sible, therefore, that Germ.any may be contem- 
plating combined operations with a view to turn- 
ing the Russian right. It is characteristic of the 
extreme secrecy with which all naval operations, 
if they are to be effective, should be conducted, 
that neither side gives more than the slenderest 
scraps of information about these exceedingly im- 
portant events. 
THE BLACK SEA. 
The Russians have raised the Turkish cruiser 
Medjidieh, which they sank just over two months 
ago, and have taken her into Odessa. The Medji- 
dieh is a ten-year-old American-built cruiser, 
armed like our Glasgow class, but with a speed of 
only 22 knots. It is quite possible that within a 
very few months she will turn out to be a valuable 
acquisition. In tlie meantime, the fastest of the 
cruisers on the Turkish side, the Breslau, fell in 
with two Russian destroyers on the night of the 
11th, and was vigorously engaged. One officer and 
six men were wounded in one of the destroyers, 
and the Breslau was hit several times. A succes- 
sion of explosions was observed on board, and tlie 
bows were in flames before the action was broken 
off. The general campaign against the smaller 
Turkish ports, which has been carried on ever 
since Russia got command of these waters by 
putting the Goehen out of action, with a view to 
cutting off Constantinople from all sea supplies, 
continues vigorously. Samsun, Zunguldach, and 
Kosla have been in succession bombarded and the 
shipping sunk. 
THE ADRIATIC. 
Since writing last week Monfalcone has been 
occupied by the Italians, so that the destroyer 
bombardment may be assumed to have given effec- 
tive help in this operation. The only other news 
is of the Italian intervention at San Giovanni di 
Medua, undertaken to make the Albanians release 
a coavoy of Montenegrin corn ships. Vigorous 
shelling appears to have brought the Albanians to 
their senses, and the ships were released. The 
operation is interesting to us for the reason that 
a cruiser of the Liverpool class was assisting the 
Italians, and from the fact that an Austrian sub- 
marine appeared to interfere with the operations. 
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