February 17, 1916, 
LAND AND WATER 
THE NEW PIRACY. 
By Arthur Pollen. 
THE week has been remarkable for a serious nayal 
calamitj' — the loss of Arelhusa ; for an unex- 
pected raid by German destroyers on some small 
craft in the North Sea ; for an absurdly bragging 
account of this incident by the German Admiralty ; for 
the announcement of a new j^iracy, a brusque reminder 
from Berlin to Washington that Ciermany is not to be 
trifled with ; and for Mr. Garrison's resignation from 
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet. , The arming of merchantmen has 
naturally come once more into discussion, and there is a 
lull in the agitation for upsetting the Board of Admiralty. 
As for the loss of the Arclhusu, the sense of relief 
that her Commodore — who is simply irreplaceable — her 
exceptionally able Captain, her war trained officers and 
almost all her gallant crew have escaped destruction, is 
so great, that the loss of the ship itself seems almost 
unimportant. Not that it is realh* unimportant, for, 
whatever the activities of the builders may have been 
since August, 1914, we never can have too many fast 
cruisers, and we began the war with lamentably too few. 
But such casualties are to be expected. " The pitcher 
that goes oftenest to the well "... and Arelhusa 
certainly had a bellyful of fighting and of risk in her 
brief but brilliant career. Like King Edward ]'II., 
she has fallen to a mine. It seems that no vigilance, no 
practicable completeness in arrangements for sweeping, 
no protective additions to ships, can render cruising in 
the North Sea safe. The laying of mines by submarines 
introduces new elements into a form of warfare distin- 
guished by uncertainties and dangers that are great enough 
already ; and it throws new burdens on a section of our 
naval force, of whose doings we hear but little, but whose 
task is second to none in importance or in peril. 
The reality of these risks is exemplified by the (ier- 
nian announcement of a great naval victory on the 
Dogger Bank — an announcement that has thrown the 
German press into transports of happiness. The Father- 
land's destroyers — so the story ran — swept majestically 
into the North Sea, where some British cruisers — one 
so modern that the name does not even appear in the 
Navy List ! — had, contrary to the lurking British habit, 
too boldly ventured. They were made to paj^ dearly for 
their temerariousness. One, the Arabis, was svmk, and 
some of the officers and crew actually rescued, captured, 
and brought home as prisoners ! A most surprising thing. 
Another was badly injured — a third and fourth put to 
ignominious flight. Their superior speed — now said to 
be f6 knots — one supposes, alone explains their e\'asion 
of their determined German conquerors. 
The Hun civilians are a simple credulous folk, strangly 
ignorant of sea affairs. But c\'en to such an audience 
as that, this story should surely have been too thin. 
The sort of cruiser, modern or not, tha.t destroyers can 
conquer, is surely not the sort that can escape ! For the 
slowest destroyer has a speed of 28 knots, and no cruiser 
of this speed would be inferior in armament. The 
Admiralty version of the incident affords an explanation 
more in harmony with the credible elements of the Ger- 
man stoiy. The Arabic and her consorts were not cruisers, 
but mine-sweepers ; coasting craft or trawlers, and 
probably imarmed, certainly unescorted by even the 
feeblest of war vessels. Thus then is the German success 
explained. It probably never occurred to. anyone that 
an escort could be necessary ; it has certainly never 
lieen necessary before. So rare a thing as a German 
dash into the North Sea will not deter, other sweepers 
from carrying on exactly as if the incident had not 
occurred. What then is singular about the incident, is 
first, that, like the Ponga's escape, it is without precedent, 
next that so trival a success should be so stupidly exag- 
gerated. 
Submarine Extensions. 
But a certain verbal stupidity seems to characterise 
an German pronuriciamentos. The proclamation of a 
new f rightfulness — the sinking of all British merchantmen 
at sight, because they are armed— does not annmmce 
a.new practice, or explain an old one by a new excuse. 
At most, it promises an extension to wider fields of 
jmelhods already as infamous as they are familiar. On 
February 4th last year, Germany announced the creation 
of a " war zone " in which " all British vessels" were to be 
destroyed without regard to the safety of the non- 
combatants on board — and neutrals were told that to 
distinguish between their ships and ours would not always 
be possible. It was thus the most comprehensive murder 
progranune ever put out. It was not a programme that 
could be extended. Bvit the submarine was the only 
specified agent of this threatened destruction. When 
America protested — February 12th — that she recognised 
search and capture, but no other form of action against 
neutrals, and would hold Germany to strict account for 
any other — Berlin retorted — on February i6th, three days 
before the campaign officially began — that as Great 
Britain had armed its merchantmen, and acknowledged the 
use of false colours, distinction between belligerents and 
neutrals would not be possible. (Germany had to strike 
back, for Britain was trying to starve her — to kill on 
sight was then a German necessity. And she would as 
far as she could close the war area by mines — which 
cannot distinguish between friend and foe — and destroy 
all shipping by every means in her power. 
How consistently Germany has acted up to her creed 
a long tale of outrage and piracy proclaims. The new 
threat is then neither novel in method or pretext. 
And it is singular only for its bearing on the controversy 
with \\'ashington. The position there is as obscure as 
ever it has been. Mr. Garrison, one of Mr. Wilson's 
able colleagues, has resigned, apparently because he was 
unsupported in his demands for a larger and better 
military force — but it is suspected that he questions Mr. 
\\'ilson's latest policy towards Germany. 
If this is well founded, we have the first — and only. — 
confirmation of those who think Mr. Wilson will surrender. 
But in spite of the omen, this still seems tome impossible. 
And now, while the final issue of the controversy 
is still in doubt, Germany, as if to close her side of it, 
announces with every circumstance of insolence that this 
persistence will continue. It is not a disavowal of her 
crime — it is a reversion to the attitude of February 4th 
and i6th of last year, and to the childish plea of her 
last published retort on the Lusitania — a case, she said, 
which showed " with horrible clearness the jeopardy to 
human life to which the barbarous methods of war of 
Germany's adversaries must lead." From first to last 
she has had no other argument than the parrot cry 
" England has completely interrupted neutral navigation 
and thus Germany was driven to submarine war on trade." 
There has never been any weakening of the principle 
that German necessity justifies anything ; never any 
pretence that this principle is compatible with that 
which America champions. 
What will be ]\Ir. Wilson's final decision ? The 
issue, so precisely defined, so categorically raised, in- 
sisted upon with such threats — " the United States would 
omit no act necessary to safeguarcUng her citizens in the 
exercise of their acknowledged right to pursue their 
lawful errands as passengers in the merchantmen of 
belligerents " — cannot be evaded. The words are care- 
fully chosen and lea\e the principles " which are immut- 
able and on which the United States must state " free of 
all ambiguity. They are laid down, the disavowal is 
demanded, the menace is repeated after, not before, 
Germany had pleaded the hollow excuse that our mer- 
chantmen were armed. Indeed this issue is distinctly 
met in the second Note after the Lusitania murders. 
That ship, declared the President, was not " offensively 
armed," and a defensive armament would not, of course, 
change her civil character. For America, then, there 
is only one answer open consistent with her profession; 
only one thing to do that squares with " the sovereignty 
and dignity of a neutral Power." The arming of 
