The Submarine War

Levin Daily Chronicle, 6 April 1918, Page 1

The Submarine War

SAFETY BY NEXT AUGUST. Discussing the submarine situation in a speech in Hull on February 8, Admiral Lord Jellicoe said the British Navy had done its best throughout the war. The difficulties with which_ the navy had to contend were due simply and solely to one source, and that was the submarine. Tho methods of the submarine were sprung upon the British Navy in the way of a surprise. Ho remembered Lord Fisher writing a memorandum to the Admiralty in 1911, saying that if Germany went to war with us—and Lord Fisher was always sure the Germans would do so—the Germans would use submarines against our merchant ships. He recollected that memorandum going to the Board of Ad-, miralty after he had joined it as Second Sea Lord, and there was nobody in a responsible position who agreed that the German Navy would really do sueh a.thing as Lord Fisher expected. Lord aid" observes that on backblock roads Fisher was right, as he had been right in many cases. Of course, the navy was unprepared to deal with the submarine, but that was not the fault of the navy, because if Lord Fisher's words had been bolieved there -frould have been time to adopt measures which would have effectually stopped the submarines from getting out; and that was the only way to deal with them. There was no royal road for saving merchant ships once the submarines got out of harbour, and it was impossible to block them in, but since the British Navy had been faced with the task before it they had tried to do their best. It was a superhuman task, because the submarine could go under water for 24 hours and could lie under water for 48 hours, and they did not know where she was.

One or two people had asked Mm recently how it was that our losses in the Irish Sea had been so heavy. The reason was that there was shoal water on each side of the Irish Sea, and submarines could sit at' the bottom. A submarine sank a ship, and we got our craft on to her, and that was the first intimation we had. We hunted it down and it sat at the bottom until the troubles were over, and that was when our craft, which had hunted her, had to go back to port to refuel. Up the submarine came again and continued her nefarious career. That was one of the main difficulties in that locality. She could sit there for 48 hours if she liked, or she could come up again in some other portion of the Irish Sea. Similarly there were difficulties in keeping them in their own ports, which were accentuated by the fact that the water in and around Heligoland Bight for a radius of 150 miles was of a depth in which submarines could sit at the bottom. If we patrolled that area which stretched something like 300 miles from Denmark to the Dutch, islands, we should still have to meet that difficulty. Directly a submarine was tackled it dived to the bottom, and waited until night, when it could continue its course without being seen. A submarine at night, even on the surface, could only be seen at a distance of 200 yards, and when they divided 300 miles by 200 yards, they would be able to work out how many patrol vessels would be required to watch a distance of that sort.

"I am afraid," concluded Lord Jellicoe, '' we are in for a bad time for a few months, but I have confidence. I have nothing to do with the business now, but I know what is ready ancl what is in preparation. I have confidence that by the summer, tho late summer—l will not put it too soon—by the later summer, about August, if the nation holds out until then—and I hope it will (cheers) —I think by that time we really shall be able to say the submarine menace is killed. (Cheers.) I will not say it until August, because I always notice that, whenever optimistic speeches are made by the Prime Minister or any other high official, they result in a desperate disaster about the next day. (Laughter.) I have told tho Prime Minister that, and have asked him never to make optimistic speeches about submarines, because the next morning I have had to go down to the War .Cabinet with a very long list of losses. I would like to ask them not to make optimistic speeches until August, when they can make as. many as they like —but -not until then." (Cheers.) The Chief Justice is of opinion that the practice of bringing young men several times before a Medical Board for examination is a perfect farce. Sir Robert Stout is not alone in this opinion. Just how much it has cost the country in perpetrating the farce, the taxpayers will probably never know. If the Medical Boards are composed of skilful and roliable men, one examination should be all that is required. To reject men as unfit in one month, and to pass them as fit in another, is to reduce tho system of examination to an utter absurdity. The most serious aspect of the question is the disorganisation of business created by tho uncertainty as to what may happen from day to day or from mon'Vi to month.—Wairarapa "Age."