NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16141, 20 February 1918, Page 7

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE PERFECT TRANSPORT OFF ICTR. Considering how much of tlio Admiralty's business nowadays has to do with iho transportai ion of troops by sea. it, is to tho advantago of Sir Rosslyn Woniyss. who has just lately succeeded liord .lollicoe as First Soil Lord, that ho should bo, as described by one who knows him woll, "tho perfect- transport officer." Thoro aro no doubt many Ansacs in Now Zealand who know hinij at loast by sight, for at Mudros in tho spring of ISU.3 ho had much to do with tlio despatch of troops to Gailiuoli. "'Ho was to us whom lie ruled over.' writes .Mr Hugh Martin, at that timo a speeial correspondent in tho Eastorn Mediterranean, "the man who made all things possible-" Ho was "a porvading totcv of efficiency there in tho harbour, 110 did things, down to tho very smallest things, thoroughly wolt. Ho was trusted rather than atlmired, liked rather than loved. Ho tackled each problem from the quickest way of getting troops into boats to tho quickest way of getting spies out of Lemnos, with the pertinacity and minute attention to detail that seem to bo specially associatcd with men of his physical type —massive shoulders, bull neck, square head: the old sea-dog typo tlmt is increasingly finding a supremo outlet for its energy in the art and science of organisation.'' It was fc>ir Rosslyn's gift of organisation that made him such an. admirablo transport officer. "If there, was bungling at the Dardanelles, it was not his fault; lie made good from A to Z. Tho biggest, and hardest job of tho kind in history was carried through with tho precision that Sir Eric Gcddes would have applied, before ho went to tho Admiralty, to some railway problem. Thero were always time-taDles at Mudros, and later at Imbros; and tho time-tables were observed. Ships— the right sort of ships—could bo depended upon to be at tho right spoti at tho right moment." At tho Admiralty he will, of course, havo wido scope for tho oxerciso of this gift, and ho will have excellent backing from Sir Erie Geddes, the First Lord, who is abovo all things a transport officer. . His experience of actual naval warfare is of tho smallest; "at tho Dardanelles lie saw active service mainly from a landlocked base." Sis Rosslyn, by tho way, is :i third cousin of King George, by descent from the Duko of Clarence (afterwards William IV-), and Mrs Jordan, a beautiful actress. Tho relationship is, of course, not recognised by tho law. THE SUBMARINE WAR. Tho latest returns of tlio results ol Germany's submarine campaign havt been far from satisfactory, and havo dono little to justify cither Mr Lloyd Georgo's assertion tnat ho liad no further fear of tho U-boats, or Sir Eric Geddes's claim that tho menace was held, though not defeated. Tho latest weekly return showed tho loss of 13 large vessels, as against 11 in tho previous week. These figures support tho belief recently expressed by a London correspondent that since tho rough weather of winter set in, submarines of tho so-called cruiser type were doing most of tho sinkings, tho smaller vessels confining themselves to miue-lay-ing. The latter aro not good surface boats in heavy 6eas, whereas tho vessels of the cruiser typo havo proved wonderfully seaworthy, being actually more manageable undor such conditions than tho modern destroyer* "These cruiser submarines carry two 5.9 guns and sixteen torpedoes, and can remain at sea Sis -weeks. The Germans have built a considerable number of them, but bo many have been lost that there aro now not more than seven or eight operating. These, however, are manned by tho pick of the whole German navy. A considerable proportion of the rocent sinkings have been accomplished by gunfire. The cruiser submarino gttns no longer are of the old type, which folded into the body of tho craft when it submerged and had to be unfolded before a Üboat could get into action. Tho new guns aro of a species known technically as 'wet' guns, being constructed of material which sea water does not harm. They are mounted on stationary platforms. Thoreforo they aro always ready and can be fired the instant tho dock of an emerging boat is above water." INVISIBLE CARGO CARRIERS. Tho latest of innumerable schemes and devices for defeating tho submarine is suggested by an ingenious contributor of a London paper who propounds a system of invisible cargo carriers. The idea is that of a largo water-tight barge-like vessel, tho cargo-carrier, towed by a tug, tho engine-carrier. In tho event of a submarino attack on the tug, which would be the-only vessel visible, as the cargo-carrier would be awash with the waves, ''the tutr would slip her cable and tho freighter would disappear beneath the sea carrying with her buoys which, after a certain, time, would come to tho surfaco with the tow-line to inform thoso concerned of the whereabouts of the submerged cargo. At tho same timo tho tug would wireless to the patrol news, ol the incidont, and would manoeuvre freely as an assailant of the U-boat. By an ingenious automatic apparatus tho submersible cargo carrier would rest at any depth previously fixed or, indeed, at the bottom of tho sea. . . After a fixed number of hours tho buoys attached to the line from tho end of tho towing hawser will come to the surfaco, and tlio freighter herself will appear in due time by a s'.milar automatic process. Then tho tug will resume her burden and her voyage. The submorged barge would not bo a danger to navigation, for she would bo submersed to a dopth to bo clear of any ships but submarines—which would collide with licr at their peril and tho Admiralty would always know exactly where she was lying, the moment of the emergence of her buoys oould be . foretold as precisely as the timo of day, and sho herself could not oome up before she'was expected, or indeed before sho was summoned from the vasty deep." It all sounds a little odd, but it would bo foolish to laugh at tho idea ms impossible. Fantastic it may but so soemed railways less than a hundred years ago, and aeroplanes in much more recent times, while our grandfathers would have scoffed at the suggestion that men could cross tho Atlantic under water.