THE ZEEBRUGGE RAID

Now that the first excitement is over, the results of the Zeebrugge-Ostend raid may be more carefully estimated. Clearly there were material gains; part of the Zeebrugge mole was destroyed and the channel at Ostend blocked up, but the chief advantages of the raid were moral. It will probably not take the Germans long to repair the damage, but they will now have to face a reawakened spirit in the British Navy that bodes no good for them. For a long time Zeebrugge and Ostend seem to have held the British in the spell of inaction; they have been regarded as impregnable fortresses that it would be folly, to attack, but now it is clear that they can be attacked and damaged with comparative ease. The men who urged this raid will now be the men who control the situation, and we can rest assured that they will not allow this to be the only attempt to nip the submarine menace at its base. The British lion once aroused will not cease his hunting until the prey is caught.