From the archives | 5 February 2015

From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 6 February 1915: Germany proclaims a paper blockade of all the British coast, to be carried out, when possible, by submarines! This new act of war is really too childish for discussion. It means no fresh development whatever. The Germans, as before, will try to destroy our ships with submarines and by sowing more mines, and they will doubtless have one or two small successes. The main course of trade will not, however, be in the least interfered with. As regards our food supplies, we are a thousand times more alarmed by the Labour Members’ menacing motion for fixing a maximum price for wheat, and by the government’s willingness to inquire whether it would not be a good thing to prevent the free access of corn to our shores.