Blockade Operations ::
p. 10 · Read in the full issue
War May Come
To Pacific
Blockade Operations :: Report of U-Boat Base
A DEVELOPMENT of the economic blockade of Germany which may be attended by considerable liveli ness, and the likelihood of which was indicated in the March issue of the “P.1.M.”, took place, during the month.
It had become apparent that some of the raw materials which are most urgently needed by Germany have been reaching Germany by shipment through the Pacific to the Russian port of Vladivostok, whence they have been transported over the Siberian railway to Russia, and into Germany by the “back door”.
Britain, having satisfied herself that this interesting procedure was in exist ence—statistics clearly showed that cer tain imports into Asiatic Russia had enormously increased in recent months —has now established a blockade orga nisation in the north-west Pacific. Two Russian ships, which were carrying metal ores to Vladivostok, have been held up by the British warships and taken to Hong Kong for examination, and it is expected that the system will be considerably extended. It is almost certain that British warships will take a keen interest in the tankers, which are carrying enormously increased quan tities of oil across from western America to Vladivostok. Russia’s importations of fuel oil via the Pacific have tripled in the past four months.
Germans and Russians have been down in the Dutch East Indies lately buying rubber, copra, palm oil, and other raw materials, regardless of cost, and undertaking to make their own arrangements for shipment. There is little doubt that these products are destined for Asiatic Russia. But the British already are on the qui vive, and it is not likely that the plan will make much progress.
A more serious development is the announcement that Russia has leased to Germany a submarine base on Possiet Bay (just north of the Korea-Siberia border) and that 80 German submarines are being sent across Siberia by rail, in sections, to prey upon Allied shipping in the Pacific. Up to the middle of April the report had not been confirmed.