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Show GERMAN FLEET IN I NORTH SEA. j That greal fleet of twenty dread- naughts from the Kiel canal again has H been seen in the North sea. What 1 the cruising of the German warships B means, no one outside the German ad- mlrnlty Is capable of answering. Speculating on the prospects of a I naval battle, a coast writer says: 1 "Except for some minor engage- Q ments affairs of naval outposts at 1 the best there has been no trial of G the British and German navies. For nineteen months tho great fleets have P been watchfully waiting and, just as p the world was settling down to the ft conviction that the Kaiser hod phll- I osopLIcally bowed to the numerical I superiority of the British navy, word comes of the movement of this arm- 9 ada from the Kiel canal By some, It will be lightly dismissed as a feint, I but the moro thoughtful may Incline I to the view of Winston Spencer I Churchill that there may be a vast I difference between Germany's former 1 known program and her present un- I known program, 'which she surely has war was declared the Kaiser was leady In everything but the size of his navy, but who Is to say that within : the range of apparently all seeing German Ger-man efficiency was not included a plan for a fleet quite big enough when " the time would be suitable for a blow9 Great navies are not built in a night, but if Germany has been developing superior naval weapons she may feel 7 that such adantages more than offset off-set her numerical Inferiority In one 7 of the naal battles In South Amer-'' Amer-'' lean waters the British lost heavily ' because their guns had not tho range of those on the German warships, and if today the Kaiser has twenty dread-.' dread-.' naughts able to fire upon the British J at a distance beyond a reply, and also a superior speed for purposes of wlth- drawal from overwhelming numbers a new complexion may be put upon the face of the war. Whether Church-' Church-' ill is right about his fears concorn-" concorn-" ing the Impenetrable mystery over the German naval program remains to be seen, but anything In which mys-, mys-, ten' figures is certain to arouse deep , interest. f As things now stand, It must he ad- mitted that the most conspicuous success suc-cess of the war has been the solidity 1 of the British navy. Extend tho frontiers fron-tiers into tho sea and despite evory-! evory-! thing done by the submarines the al- lied fleets havo stood like a solid wall ' of iron. Is that wall to be tested? It is tho most exciting of all speculations." specula-tions." It is our opinion the German war- i ships do not intend to attack, unless 1 they are armed with guns of longer ; range than those on the British ships of the Queen Elizabeth class which ' carry 15-inch guns and are supposed i to have a range of 15 miles. Resolu- ! tion, Revenge, Royal Oak, Royal Sov- eroign and Warsplte were building at ' the opening of the war. They aro re-i re-i ported to be in service and they are all 27,500 tons, with eight 15-inch and twelve 6-inch guns. That Oormany has ships of longer range guns is doubted, though the Krupp works aro turning out 16-Inch and 37-inch guns for the German land forces. The curvature of the earth makes accurate gun fire from a ship almost impossible at a distance beyond be-yond 12 miles, but this handicap can be overcome by the aid of Zeppelins to direct the range finders. lhe Germans may be planning a trap for tho British. With a mine field well placed, the Kaiser's squad ron might invite a battle, and thon feigning a retreat, lead the British squadron In to the danger zone of submerged mines. Evidently the British naval authori-ties authori-ties are analyzing these German acts of doflanco, and they are not rushing in to engago the Hindenburg and other oth-er big battleships without careful study of the situation. The Gorman may have come out for no other purpoao than to strew mines In the" North Sea. |