August 21, 1915. 
LAND AND WATER 
auxiliary Meteor on August 8. In the presence 
of a superior force, the captain of the Meteor 
scuttled his ship immediately afterwards. On the 
same day the auxiliary cruiser India was tor- 
pedoed by a German submarine, apparently in 
Norwegian territorial waters, with a very heavy 
loss of life. On the 9th the Lynos struck a mine, 
four officers and twenty -two men being saved. 
On Tuesday morning the sensational 
announcement was made that Whitehaven, 
Parton, and Harrington were bombarded by a 
German U boat, thus repeating the performance 
of the British submarines, one of which a few 
weelcs ago brought Turkish transport trains 
under fire on the south coast of the Sea of Mar- 
mara. The event has this additional interest, 
that, so far as I am awa^re, this is the first appear- 
ance of a submarine between Rathlin Island and 
St. George's Channel since almost the first days 
of the campaign. And, finally, there have been 
two attempts by the German Fleet to find a way 
into the Gulf of Riga, and an att^.ck has been 
made on the Island of I'^to, one of the Aland 
group. Of all these events, by far the n.ost im- 
portant from a naval point of view arc the 
developments in the -Egean and Baltic. 
NEW LANDINGS LN THE GULF OF 
SAROS. 
The military significance of these landings is 
not yet known. The naval significance of fresh 
landings having been made is, however, exceed- 
ingly clear. Of all demonstrations of command 
of the sea, landing on a hostile shore is the most 
striking. Unless the command is complete it 
cannot oe done at all. My readers will remember 
from last week's discussion how confident Tor- 
rington was that the French would not attempt 
a landing in England so long as his fleet was " in 
being." It was the boast of Count Reventlow in 
the letter which he wrote, and to which Mr. Bal- 
four wrote his immortal reply, that. the German 
submarine had asserted such power as to make the 
under-water menace a more efiective bar to com- 
mand of the sea than the " fleet in being " of the 
historians. It was putting into a concrete claim 
all those vague alarms which we all. in greater or 
less measure, inherited from the submarine con- 
troversy of last summer. But the vagueness of 
these alarms should have warned us that they 
were unreal. One phrase used in that controversy 
remains in my mind as a useful comment on the 
undefined terrors that the submarine holds over 
us. In a letter signed " R. N." it was said of the 
submarine that " It will affect grand tactics pro- 
foundly, but in no sense incalculably. Its use can 
seldom, if ever, prove of decisive effect." The 
truth of this has been many times demonstrated — 
nowhere more convincingly than in the ^Egean. 
When the German submarines turned up at 
the Dardanelles and the Triumph and Majestic 
were sunk, it became obvious that the w hole pro- 
cedure round the Gallipoli Peninsula would have 
to be radically modified. Photographs had shown 
us transports, battleships, and destroyers lying 
at anchor just off the shore of the small piece of 
land which we hold at the extremity. If sub- 
marines were liable to appear at any moment it 
would be quite impossible adequately to protect 
such stationary armadas. Equally obviously, no 
landing, such as that of April 25, could 
have been effected had the Turks been able to 
rely upon half a dozen active under-water craft 
to assist in the defence of the Gallipoli shores. 
To many, therefore, it seemed that the efforts of 
the submarines would bring about two vital 
changes in the Dardanelles position. The troops 
on shore would be robbed of the assistance of 
battleships' artillery, because, as we have seen 
previously, the limitations of fire control are such 
that battleships cannot at all, unless stationary, 
employ indirect fire, while their direct fire loses 
much of its efliciency if they manoeuvre. And 
unless they manoeuvred, they were easy targets 
for submarines, for, as w'e have also previously 
seen, the modern net is no protection against the 
modern torpedo. In short, the presence of the 
submarine w-ould drive off the battleship. 
But the second result seemed equally obvious. 
No transports could be brought near enough to 
the shore, either to keep in such close contact 
with the troops as had previously beeti main- 
tained, or to effect any landings at fresh points. 
And if such landings, in spite of the su'ni arine 
threat, were attempted, they could not enjoy the 
benefit of the covering fire of warships, which 
had been, perhaps, the decisive factor in making 
the landing of April 25 possible. Such, I say, 
was the general impression. 
But, as experience has now shown. Admiral 
de Robeck and his men have found means of deal- 
ing with the menace. The presence of submarines 
has doubtless affected the position 'profoundly, 
but it has not affected it incalculably. The Navy, 
thrown on its own resources, has found new 
methods of dealing with the situation, and those 
methods have proved effective. For, mark, not 
only have the transports brought the men where 
they could land, but the landings have seemingly 
been materially assisted by the ships' guns. This 
evidently may have been so, as we can see from 
the fact that St. Louis has been hard at work 
bombardino- Achi Baba. What the Navy's new 
methods oi dealing with the submarine are had, 
perhaps, better not be the subject of our specula- 
tions. The boat said to have been towed into 
Constantinople completely disabled may have 
struck a Turkish mine. Be that as it may, it is 
evident that fresh landings were actually made, 
that the troops already on shore continue to be 
revictualled and reinforced, and that bombard- 
ments are, when necessary, made, and all without 
any serious interruption. Such things could 
hardly be if the German submarines controlled the 
situation. 
IN THE SEA OF MARMARA. 
In the meantime, the counter-campaign ol 
the British submarines becomes daily more deter- 
mined. A second Turkish battleship has been 
sunk, an empty transport and a gunboat as 
well. Our boats have appeared once more off 
Constantinople. 
So much is official. Both from Athens and 
Mitylene come unconfirmed reports that a British 
submarine has gone through the Bosphorus to the 
Black Sea and torpedoed the Goeben and the 
Breslau. The submarines have done so many 
quite incredible things that one hesitates to doubt 
even such a .story as this. But even if it is not sub- 
stantially true,"" the story has this value. It is 
obviously a repetition of stories heard in Turkey. 
If it is believed there, the sense of insecuntv must 
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