But the fact that the British were able to keep the German fleet
bottled up was a victory in itself, though a bloodless one. Practically
all commerce with Germany had been shut off. It settled down to a
question of how long the German Empire could survive without the
necessary food and other commodities reaching her shores. What little
in the way of foodstuffs did reach Germany came by the way of the
Scandinavian countries--Norway, Sweden and Denmark; also some grain was
still being shipped in by the way of Roumania and was being transported
up the Danube, which had been opened to traffic again after Serbia had
been crushed.

But these supplies were not great enough to take care of the whole
German population. In the conquest of Russian Poland, Germany had
improved her lot somewhat, for the fertile fields had immediately been
planted and a good crop had been reaped.

And the one thing that prevented Germany from importing the things that
would in the end be necessary to her existence was the British
supremacy of the sea, abetted now somewhat by the navies of France,
Italy and Japan. German commerce had been cleared from the seven seas.
What vessels of war had been scattered over the world at the outbreak
of the war had either been sent to the bottom, captured or were
interned in foreign ports. These latter were of no value to Germany.

It had been more than a year now since the last German commerce raider
had been sunk. The German commercial flag was seen no more in the four
corners of the globe. It appeared that Germany was nearing the end of
her rope.