ON THE SEA.

Taihape Daily Times, 3 November 1917, Page 5

ON THE SEA.

BRITISH SHIPPING CONTROL. Received S.lO. LONDON, Nov 2. The Press Bureau reports that the National Board on Seamen's Wages •has now been establishes a Board of Shipping Control and will appoint a chairman. t , SUCCESSFUL GRAPPLING WITH SUBMARINES. GERMANY LOSING MORE THAN \ REPORTED. - TENDON ,Nov 1. In the House of Commons, Sir Eric Geddes reviewed the naval situation. He explained that measures had been taken to increase the power and strengthen the control, of the Naval staff. He anticipated a great adyan : tage from the , fact that the Naval staff would be in increasing personal touch .with the. Grand Fleet and other naval commands.' . He justified the non-publication 'of British tonnage sunk because it would afford the enemy information which would very much like to obtain. He was able, however, to .supplement Mr Lloyd George's. Information showing that we were making reasonably satisfactory progress in overcoming the submarine meance Since the beginning of the war 40 or 50 per cent of enemy submenace. Since the beginning of the and Atlantic and Arctic Oceans had been sunk. ; . " Sir Eric Geddes referring to the output ..of ..merchant tonnage during the first nine months of 1917, said it was 123 per cent, higher than in the corresponding period of last year, and very considerably higher than' the output of the*Twnole of 19.15. Sfaii-' dard vessels now ordered represented' nearly a million "gross tons of shipping. Over half of these were already being constructed, and the remainder would be taken in hand as soon as' the vessels now on the stocks were launched- A limited number of standard vessels Had been completed, but the whole of the 3 r ards suitable for the building of standard ships could not yet be entirely devoted to them, because the stocks were already occupied by other craft.

The programme of warship construction now in hand was infinitely larger than ever undertaken before the war. The output of naval craft during the last 12 months' was three to four times as great as the annual average output for a few years preceding the war.

CONTEST OF GRIT. ALL GOES WELU FOR BRITAIN. Received 9.30. LONDON, Nov 2. Mr Geddes said the Germans claimed to have sunk 808,000 tons of all nationalities last August. They really, sank a little more than one-third of that amount; and British tonnage was a little more than half of all other nationalities. The Germans, in September claim 672,000 tons, but they sank far less than one-third of that amount, and British shipping comprised less than half of all other nationalities. The nett reduction of tonnage in the last four months is, to-day, 30 per cent less than estimated early in July. The total nett reduction since the beginning of the war, from all in British ships over 1600 tons is under 2| million tons gross, or 14 per cent. "~ After summarising . the progress made in combating submarinism, Mr Geddes referred to the fact that Germans were building submarines faster than * hitherto and they had not yet

attained their maximum strength in submarine warfare. Therefore it was becoming a test of determination and grit, and ingenuity between the two contending forces. He concluded: "Submarine warfare at present is going well for us, and one is justified in regarding the TuTure with courage and confidence." He recalled "the face that the German mercantile marine, before the • war totalled five million tons, to-day nearly half has been sunk cr is in the Entente's hands