Page:English Historical Review Volume 35.djvu/472

 464 REVIEWS OF BOOKS July Spec's squadron was believed to threaten the Entente detachments in Australasian and Malayan waters, after that date those on the coast of America and in the Atlantic. Each of those detachments had to be made strong enough to defeat it. For reasons not completely known, that under Cradock was not strong enough, and was destroyed. But on 8 December Spec's force was in its tiirn destroyed by a superior con- centration off the Falkland Islands. Thus, the reciprocal effect of the primary aim brings about ever-increas- ing concentration and ultimately the massed fleet, whereas secondary aims are constantly calling for dispersion of force as in the case of the Entente oversea expeditions and the operations of the Grerman independent cruisers, e. g. the Emden in the Bay of Bengal and the Karlsruhe in the Atlantic. The former captured twenty-two ships in forty-nine days, and was destroyed by a cruiser escorting the Australasian military convoy ; the latter captured fifteen ships in fifty -four days, and was destroyed by an internal explosion. Each had several narrow escapes from the large number of ships sent in pursuit. The failure to bring them to action seems to indicate that a position alongside the merchant ship is more likely than a search of the wide ocean to lead to contact and battle with an enemy who evades action and seeks the merchant ship to destroy her. This means that war suggested thus early the value of the convoy system. Such are some of the leading features, which merit the special attention of the reader. Reginald Custance.