The situation at sea may be summarized by saying that
though the submarine threat is of course serious, the increase of losses among Allied and neutral merchantmen does not anything like reach the figure the Germans contemplated. Even from the German point of view the declaration of war on mankind in general has already failed to justify itself. Germany in a series of official messages published in the German Press, and through a fresh statement by the Kaiser, quite apart from her declarations to the United States, has, however, committed herself irretrievably. She will discover that the British people keep sufficient hold on them- selves to live on what they can afford to use, and that the Navy, unhampered, will meet the danger more and more as time passes. French " blockaded " ports received no fewer than one hundred and twenty-one merchant vessels in a single day. The devices used by our ships of war and the defensive guns of our merchantmen are continually improving and increasing.
