What the Navy is Doing.

Levin Daily Chronicle, 25 October 1917, Page 4

What the Navy is Doing.

Speaking at the Ulster fete in London, Commander Calthrop said sonic people asked what our Navy had done to combat the submarines. There were many things he could not speak of, but this much he would say: There wore a great many German widows and orphans who doubted the success of the U boats. There were many women in Germany whose husbands did not come back. Referring to tho work of the merchant marine, Commander Calthrop said the merchant marine liad carried successfully to their destination eight million men and ten million, tons of war material in six months of last year. Only one in a thousand of the merchant ships that passed through the Dover patrol were sunk or damaged. Up to January of this year not a life had been lost, in the transport of men from this country to Franco. In tho course of the war one million sick and wounded had boon transported to this country. Over one million horses and mules, 50 million gallons of petrol, 100 million cwts of wheat, and 7 millions tons of iron ore. So far as the blockade of Germany was concerned, probably the most important work the Navy could do was to keep food and raw materials from our enemy, and wo had succeeded beyond all dreams. Germany was being put on extraordinary short rations and if the blockade was a falure then the German menu was a failure, for they were now reduced to living on cat and dog flesh, and on bread made partly from sawdust. In conclusion, he said that between August, 1914, and March 1917, over 7,000 Irishmen had recruited ifor the Navy.