A HOCUSSED NATION

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3149, 30 July 1917, Page 6

A HOCUSSED NATION

WHY THE GERMANS THINK THEY

ARE WINNING

DAILY DIET OF LIES

(By D. T. Curtiri, in the "Daily Mail.")

If you wero a German patriot getting practically nil your war information irom the German newspapers, what would jou think of your chance to win? Though you reluctantly admitted that your country's supreme military offensive was at .Verdun and had failed, though life became over more irksome under increasing food privations, though whilo rejoicing in the:chaos of ;Russia which makes at possible for you to hold a comparatively thin eastern front' with third and fourth-class troops, you feel that a separate peaco cannot be achieved, you .would, still have one great hope of winning. You vcould lay down your newspaper each day, or several times a day, refreshed In spirit. You would resolve to bear with food shortage a little longer and let your U-boats do the rest. Submarine news is copiously and scientifically served to the German reader in each edition. The official German announcements, which,- unlike the British, do not appear, regularly every week but at irregular intervals, seldom less thau twice a week, and often on several suc- ■ «essive days, usually give: (1) the total tonnage with the total sinkings; (2) the name of the boat sunk, or a description in case this could not be ascertained; (3) the course and the cargo; (i) the nationality, British, French, American, Italian, Norwegian,. Danish, Dutch, and Brazilian are calmly 6et down in a matter-of-fact way, as though the somewhat remarkable procedure of tho promiscuous letting loose of torpedoes and shells on anything thnt happens to be floating between a periscope and the horizon were really nothing unusual. A Typical List. _ The following typical list will give an idea of the comprehensive accounts supplied to the German public. It was preceded by a list on May 3 and followed ■by a list on May 5, and has been read in Germany and wirelessed to neutral countries :— ANOTHER 18 SHIPS OE 56,000 TONS SUNK. Official. Berlin, May i. Eighteen merchantmen of 56,000 tons, including eight of 24,000 tons, sunk in the English Channel. Among these were':—A great transport of 11,000 tons, sunk south of the Lizard whilo being convoyed by destroyers; the British armed liners Beeinah, with.Bsoo tons of coal for Italy, and the Afali'a, with 4000 tons of coal •for the British Mediterranean Eleet; the British steamers Towergato (3697 tons), .with cargo of wool, and the Abosso (7782 tons), bound for England; the British tank steamer San Hilario, ivith 18,000 tons of oil from America to ] England; tho British sailing vessels Ellen Harrison, with coal for Prance, and the Mermaid; tho British fish-cutter Pursue; the French three-master, Marie •Blanche; the Russian barks Endymion (1345 tons) and tho August (1596 tons), with wood for England; and the Russian schooner Ehrglis, with wood for England; a large unknown tank steamer proceeding in the night to Havre with lights out was.hit despite escort, and blew up •with a heavy explosion; the British steamer Avozet (1219 tons), with a cargo of cork from America to England; the Emma, with 3600 tons of maizo from Baltimore to Glasgow; tho Diadem, a newly completed vessel of 4500 tons, with 6200 tons of maize from Rangoon to London; the Oswald, with 7000 tons of sulphur from! America to England; the DykJand (4291 tons), from Halifax to' Falmouth, with a cargo of wood; the Swamore (6373 tons). 'The captain of tho British vessel San Hilario, who carried on a long artillery battle with tho U-boat, was taken prisoner." . " In the middle of each month the German, Admiralty gives the total tonnage alleged to have been sunk in the preceding month, which announcement is duly displayed in huge first-page headlines in the Press. Tho Germans embarked on unlimited submarining in the professed belief that if they could sink 600,000 tons of'Vshipping per month they oould bring Britain, the keystone of—their enemies, to her knees before the United States could iplay any great part in the war. They unfurled the black flag in the face of the world on that assumption. -Moro than 80 per cent, of tho Germans clamoured for unlimited submarine warfare. Therefore, is it unreasonable to suppose that to-day they believe they have an excellent chance to win, inasmuch as it is officially proclaimed that 2,800,000 tons have been sunk in the first three months, which is 55 per cent, ahead of the rate set as sufficient? The German Government rightly realises that a proper, .amount of confidence and will to win areMreinendous factors in success. Therefore, the German Press Bureau builds upon a foundation of statistics of loss an elaborate structure which shows the effect of the U-boat war on the Allies, with the limealight,- of course, never switched from the British Isles.