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Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16256, 5 July 1918, Page 6

Another hideous crime .has been added to the long list that makes up the black account of the German submarines. The Llandovery Castle, a Canadian hospital ship, has been torpedoed on the high seas without warning, over 100 miles from land. Fortunately 6he was returning from Canada, and was carrying no wounded, but nearly all those on board, including a crow of 164, and a hospital staff of 94, have perished. It is idle, as Mr Bonar Law Bays in his comment upon this horrible atrocity, to seek for words which can adequately express one's feelings, for such crimes as these are beyond the power of language to describe. Great Britain is already in a fever of horror and anger, and there is a hardening of the general feeling that no terms can be made with an enemy capable of such fiendish cruelty. Reprisals are naturally being urged, but the only satisfactory reprisal will be a refusal to consider any terms of peace that may be offered.

The submarine commander appears to have attempted to justify his action by alleging that the ship was carrying belligerent troops, namely, American flying officers. This is the excuse the Germans have always put forward for their attacks upon hospital ships, and the baselessness of this excuse has been completely exposed over and over again by the British Government. In his statement of October last in reply to the charges by the German Government, that the Hcd Cross was being abused at sea by Great Britain, Mr Balfour destroyed the whole German case (even before refuting the charges in detail) by emphasising "the remarkable fact that German submarines and other warships .have never once exercised the right of inspecting British hospital ships, which is given to them by Article 4 of the Hague Convention for the application of the principles of the Geneva Convention to maritime warfare." The German reply is that the submarine cannot, with safety to itself, stop and search vessels. That does not palliate their crimes in the smallest degree. They have chosen to use a weapon which cannot be used effectively except illegally and in defiance of all considerations of honour and humanity. They clingy to that weapon, and will not give it up, despite the, consequences of its use. And by that fact they fix the treatment which must be meted out to them—the tree ment duo to wild beasts at large in the world.

[ Particulars are now available as to the progress of merchant shipbuilding in Britain up to June 30th. The output for June was 134,159 tons, and, although this is substantially less than the May tonnage, it is better than the output in April. The tonnage for the quarter ending June 30th is stated to be 78 per cent, more than in the same quarter in 1917, but this signifies very little, for the "June quarter la&t year was the worst recorded in that year, being just under 250,000 tons, as compared with 420,000 tons in the December quarter. But the output for the twelve months ended June 30th 1,431,150 tons—is encouraging, and shows that the upward tendency continues, the average annual rate having grown steadily from 833,863 tona for the year ended June 30th, 1917. The conference of the Federation of Labonr, which has been sitting in Wellington, is not attracting very much attention, and is a very quiet affair compared with past conferences of the sort. In tho annual report complaint is made of the neglect of the Government to attend to the wishes of the Federation, and the terrible threat xs made that the Federation may decide to ignore the Government. "We consider," the executive say, "that the time has arrived when the Labour organisations of New Zealand should seriously consider whether it would not be better to cease mating representations to the Government, and concentrate all our energies to the work of organising for the pur- J

poso of onstiag the Government from office and securing the reins of office ourselves.7 We are not confident that the Federation will really "drop" the Government, because the inva>sion of the Ministerial offices for the purpose of delivering harangues is an annual treat that the Red Fed orators will not care to give up. As for <toncentrating on the ousting of the Government, we had imagined that the Red Feds had been doing this all along. Tt- is not concentration or organisation of which they most stand in need, but supporters, and they, will oust the Government only when they find voters enough to do it with. They will not find this support until they radically alter their own ideas and programme.

It is now a truism that the great war has had the effect of knitting together in the bonds of brotherhood the United States with the British Empire. Throughout the British Dominions the 4th of July this year has boen a day of memorial for ourselves as well as for the great American people. It is interesting, also, to noto that the leading journals in the United Statos are now referring to the British people in terms not only of sympathy, but of admiration. A correspondent forwards us a leading article on the British Empire which recently appeared in the Los Angeles "Daily Times." It laughs at the idea of the disintegration of the British Empire, and refers to the fact that as the result of the war the members of the great British family now stand shoulder to shoulder as never before. It goes on to say:—

"Pro-Gorman writers, intent upon tickling the, vanity of the United States, have loved to picture a world in which a decayed Britain has crumbled to disintegration, leaving Germany and the United States the supremo powers of the world, with a mental reservation, as voiced ■ by Kaiser William, • that the United States would be controlled by Germany. But Germany has unwittingly given the British Enipiro a new lease of life; she has herself provided the magic tonic to revive Britannia's buoyant youth and vigour. She has tapped unexpected sources of virility ; she has electrified an Empire's soul with that strongest of all worldpowers, love and mutual sacrifice. There is no corner of the .British Empire to-day so distant that it does not thrill with pride at the prodigious feats of endurance exhibited by the British army during the last dreadful weeks. This is no weakling, ageweary Motherland, but rather a very sturdy, robust Amazon in the prime of _ life, with boundless resources of grit and courage, who proudly leads, not follows, her stalwart sons into battle —as the Germans are learning to their bitter cost."