smack, could leave or enter a German port, and her ocean-borne trade would cease to exist.
This is no idle boast, and certainly it carries with it no desire on my part to see its fulfilment—the more peaceful German ships there are on the world's waters the better for the world, England included—but facts are facts, and it is well for the peoples of both countries to know them. There are only two ways out of the North Sea—one round the north of Scotland, the other through the English Channel. If the German Fleet tried to break through by the former, it would meet the British Atlantic Fleet, reinforced by the Channel Fleet, and be attacked in rear and in flank by the North Sea Fleet. Even if, by some ruse on their part or some negligence on ours, German men-of-war did reach the Atlantic, what could they do there, with no ports and only two coaling-stations to resort to,
