—THE ILLUSTRATED WAR NEWS, FEIJ. 24,1915.— [Part 29] T THE GREAT WAR. 'HE world has been so thoroughly occupied with the topic of the “Blockade ”this week that events of real and tangible importance have been stunned to death by the impact of many words. I lie blockade, indeed, with all its mystical frightfulness, will bean obsession until time proves its value or its futility, or until some emphatic action on sea or land distracts people’s minds from its theories and its uncertain utility. A t the time of writing the main thing that concerns us is the fact that Germany has apparently got herself into an inextricable tangle with America and the neutral Powers. Her note to America, a commingling of plaint and protest, has not at all helped her case with that nation, and she has also made Norway and Sweden and Denmark angry by refusing to consider any form of ship- painting or name -displaying as an aid to immunity. This i«, 110 doubt, because although Germany talks steadily about submarines, she intends to do much of her ship-sinking with mines, and, in fact, this must bethe case, for on a mere arithmetical basis, her submarine flotilla is inadequate. All this signifies avery grave issue, not for Great Britain, whose shipowners are still imperturbable and incredulous, but for Germany herself. And this gravity need not arise from any active insteps hostility put forward by the neutral Powers, but in a quiet and passive resistance to her "frig-htfulness.” From V CELEB RATING THE KAISERS BIRTH DAY UNDER DIFF IC U L TIE S:AN INTERNED GERMAN VESSEL DRESSED FOR THE OCCASION. The rejoicings upon the birthday of the Kaiser were occasionally car.ied out in unpromising u cumstances. We show the German s.s. “ Otroito,” a tender of the“ Kronp inz Wilhelm ,”interned atLas Palm as, but patriotically dressed. Photogl yph b y Uiiilenvvoti unit U ihierw ooit. OUTSIDE THE RECRUITING STATION THE FIRST CAR DIFF R ECRU ITS FOR THE WELSH GUARDS Colonel William Murray- Threipland. who has the Kin g’s authority to raise the new Battalion of Guards, paid a visit to Cardiff the other day and found recruiting progressing briskly. Our picture shows some of the earliest recruits in Wales for the new battalion gathered outside the recruiting station in Queen Street, Cardiff. Colonel Murray- Threipland is closely conncctcd with the Rhondda Valley district both by marriage and residence. —[Photograph by Newspaper Illus.\ Norway comes the report that if Germany intends to stop, or to try and stop, oversea trade with Great Britain, then the Norwegian ship-owners will, on their own accord, stop trade with Germany. The report maybe abut report, but it has the germs of an inaction it for all neutral nations. Germany is in a fairway towards estranging even those who can help her, and if she succeeds in her self-killing ordinance, she will bethe prime factor in helping to starve her people. There is another grave issue to be considered by Germany, also. For the past two weeks the population has been worked up to an almost hysterical state of excited expectation of what is going to happen to hated Britain on and after “The Day.” Wild and quite impossible promises have been made with the reckless freedom of ignorance a unique and impossibly large fleet of mine-dropping submarines has been created for the special gratification of an eager public, a fleet which could only have been constructed on paper in the pitifully short time allowed for their building. The whole of Germany is in a state of bubbling expectation, and that state is highly alarming. Some of the newspapers have recog nised this danger, and have warned their public that the blockade will take time, that nothing dramatic or startling must be expected yet these warnings have come a little late the harm has been done and the bulk of the German people are confidently anticipating the complete starvation of Britain, and the end of the war in three weeks. {('o u tin iifil o v erU n/.