_The attack is
not yet checked. The danger is not over._ Still again--look at some of
the facts! In two years and a quarter of war--
Eight million men moved across the seas--almost without mishap.
Nine million and a half tons of explosives carried to our own armies
and those of our Allies.
Over a million horses and mules; and--
Over forty-seven million gallons of petrol supplied to the armies.
And besides, twenty-five thousand ships have been examined for
contraband of war, on the high seas, or in harbour, since the war
began.
And at this, one must pause a moment to think--once again--what it
means; to call up the familiar image of Britain's ships, large and
small, scattered over the wide Atlantic and the approaches to the North
Sea, watching there through winter and summer, storm and fair, and so
carrying out, relentlessly, the blockade of Germany, through every
circumstance often of danger and difficulty; with every consideration
for neutral interests that is compatible with this desperate war, in
which the very existence of England is concerned; and without the
sacrifice of a single life, unless it be the lives of British sailors,
often lost in these boardings of passing ships, amid the darkness and
storm of winter seas.
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