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Show NORTH SEA MINE ZONE GREATLYjENLARGED State Department Receives Warning Through American Ameri-can Embassy at London. WASHINGTON, Jan. 27. Warning- of a considerable extensfon of the North sea zone designated as "dangerous to shipping" ship-ping" was received at the state department depart-ment today from the American embassy at London. It is assumed the warning means that the British mine fields are being enlarged, but what ulterior significance sig-nificance the step may have is not known here. The natural result of enlarging the mine fields on the lines Indicated would be to bpttle up more closely the German warships war-ships at Helgoland and to lessen the possibility pos-sibility of raiders escaping the cordon of British vessels and and mines and attacking at-tacking tho English coast. The state department de-partment announcement defining the territory ter-ritory mined was not exactly clear as to latitude and longitude, and department officials declined to interpret the warning, warn-ing, but apparently the new mine field would stretch from the territorial waters of Denmark to near the Netherlands coast. If maintained, this would make it extremely dangerous for vessels seeking to make the outside from German ports. Heretofore the British have been depending de-pending 'argely on their warships to halt enemy ships trying to get into the Nortli sea. The warning put into the "dangerous" zone the lollowlng waters: Area comprising all the waters except ex-cept Netherlands and Danish territorial terri-torial waters lying to the southward and eastward of a line commencing four miles from the coast of Jutland, In latitude 06 degrees north, longitude longi-tude 8 degrees east from Greenwich, and passing through the following positions: po-sitions: Latitude 56 degrees north, longitude 6 degrees east, latitude 54 degrees. 45 minutes east, thence to a position In latitude 53 degrees, 37 minutes min-utes north, longitude 5 degrees east, seven miles off the coast of the Netherlands. |