RUNNING AMOK.
[To THE EDITOR or TEM " SPECTITOR.°1
SIR,—In the Spectator of January 20th one of your correspondents has raised the point that the enemy undersea warfare by sinking food ships is making it harder for the shrinking purchase-power of Germany to acquire food. Surely the attempt of any belligerent to carry out a commercial blockade against a hostile nation is bound indirectly to militate in some degree against its own food supplies. It is hardly likely that the leaders of the German nation have overlooked this weakness any more than Napoleon did in his blockade of England. But anyhow, if it be conceded that Germany is weakening herself by such a method of warfare, a large land area, which, like Germany, is almost self- supporting as regards essential foodstuffs, surely should benefit in the long run by such a policy. Our insularity combined with our territorial limitations combine to render us so much more depen- dent upon external means of communication for the maintenance of our food supplies, that the damage which Germany has indirectly inflicted upon herself should in the natural order of events be considerably less than that imposed on the smaller land area. This seems a reasonable consequence of blockade warfare not likely to go undetected by the German mind.—I am, Sir, &c.,
T. H. B.
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