A WAR £>F NERVES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2777, 22 May 1916, Page 4

A WAR £>F NERVES

It may be natural for Englishmen to complain of the aibiienM of information regarding the Navy's!'work against Gorman submarines, but the'. contemplation of- a lingering death in a> sunken submarine mav well strike terror to the stoutest heart, and tho Brithi'i Admiralty have made deadly ueo of thte> psychology of the situation by refraining* from making any mention of the time cy place of the dofvi'uctioit of tho "U" tbats. Tho psychologioal effect upon the _ personnel of the submarine service of this absolute silence as to the fate of the isubmarines after they have left Germany (says a writer in tho "London Magazine") must be simply appalling. So long the fate of the "U" boats which wore pptu'red or destroyed in tho earlier wv\3ks of tho war was made known, the horror of uncertainty was missing; but during tho last lew months over half ft -hundred boats have failed to return. Tlicy saluted as they steamed out from t'b eir base, and that was the last (hat was '.seen or heard of any onfc of tliem. Mar.ihal von Hindonburg has said that the pt'escnt contest is one of nerves. If so, it .may well b» ft question whether this portentous sileneo which has followed the passage of tho "U" boats upon the high seas has not been a powerful factor in breaking down the German submarine warfa.rje.