e world to ourselves and
our allies, while wholly closing them to our enemies. Had our
politicians permitted it, the blockade by our Navy would have brought
the war to an earlier conclusion. The Germans, driven from the surface
of the sea, put their trust in their murderous submarine campaign.
Finding that this failed altogether against our Navy, they directed it
against the merchant shipping of the world. That attempt too failed.
Our Navy gradually mastered the submarines, until at last, towards the
close of the war, the crews of the German "U" boats refused to put to
sea. There was no great decisive naval action, for the good reason
that the High Sea Fleet would not fight it out with our Grand Fleet,
but retired to the shelter of the German minefields whenever it was
attacked. In vain inferior forces were sent to tempt the enemy out.
The German raids on the East Coast had no military value, and
apparently had frightfulness as their sole object. Their fast ships
used to rush across the North Sea under cover of the fog, bombard our
undefended watering-places for half an hour or so, then hurry home
again. These raids reminded one of the mischievous urchin who rings a
front-door bell and runs away. But though there was no great naval
action, there was plenty of hard fighting at sea; many a bold
enterprise was carried through and many a gallant deed was performed.

Of the great British Navy the Harwich Forces formed but a small part,
but they were typical of the whole Navy, and it was no small part that
they took in far the most important theatre of the naval war--the
North Sea. And now the Harwich Force of light cruisers and destroyers
and the Submarine Flotilla, having carried through their great duty,
are to be dispersed over the four quarters of the globe. Many have
already sailed to the West Indies, to the Mediterranean, to the China
seas, and elsewhere. The close bands of brothers who fought and died
together through the great war are now to be broken up; and it
requires little imagination to feel that they are loth thus to
separate.

In these forces lives a spirit that recalls that of the military
orders in the chivalrous days of the Crusades, when gallant knights
were banded together to fight and sacrifice themselves for a great
cause. To live for a while in these ships is to find oneself in a
purer, breezier atmosphere--an atmosphere of simple loyalty,
old-fashioned patriotism, devotion to the Service, and cheer