THE U-BOAT WAR

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3187, 11 September 1917, Page 5

THE U-BOAT WAR

AN ENCOURAGING OUfLOOK CRISIS PRACTICALLY. OVER •ANTI-MEASURES GAINING THE DAY (Kec. September 11, 1.15 a.m.) New York, September 10. Mr. Charte Grasty, the Now York "Times" London correspondent, states that tho convoy sj'stem and other anti-tl-boat methods of the Allies are, firmly established, and during tho past few months havo been most successful. Large numbers of cruisers and destroyers'in the English Channel are thwarting the U-boats, and the transports to France are practically immune. There is reason to believe that Germauy is planning to carry her U-boat campaign into the ocean in ordor to-offset the Allies' attacks. > It is generally known in naval oircles that the U-boats in the Atlantic Ocean never exceed twenty, and off the British coast ten. Germany has constructed loss than three hundred U-boats, of which 150 now exist. 'I he necessity of constant repairs, supplies, and the difficulty of obtaining crews owing to the sailors' demoralisation and fear of destroyers, togethor with the difaculty of obtaining torpedo material, accounts for tho few U-boats on actual service. ... The correspondent sends figures, which may be relied on as accurate, showing that the Allied and • neutral losses tor the past eight months, including August, approximate four million tons, exclusive of ships damaged or beached J. he zenith was reached in April, when two hundred thousand tons were sunk weekly The U-boat men were unable to -maintain tho high pressure, and a reac-, tion 'is noticed in the comparatively small losses for July and August. The multiplication of losses is greatly in. creasing the nerve-racking nature of Üboat duty. The men aro in deathly feai of the destroyers. It is therefore onlj necessary to maintain sufficient destroy - org.to reduco tho sinkings to the level of now construction and thus detent Germany.