The Daily News. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28. 1916.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28. 1916.

NEW SUBMARINE CAMPAIGN. It is a fanciful picture that is painted by .Amsterdam of the submarine building activity in German shipyards. The German yards are all at work, night and day, constructing an enormous fleet of the vessels that are to reduce proud Britain to impotence. The new Hun submarine is quite an improvement upon previous submarines. It has bows, according to the Amsterdam chronicler, resembling the blade of a scythe, pointing upwards out of the water, so that when the submarine is travelling at a moderate speed it can cut through a wire hawser one and n-half inches thick. These new terrors are, we arc told, equipped for a voyage of seventy days. Germany is very pleased with this new development of the arm aimed at her greatest enemy, and there ar.- signs, naively adds the cable, of renewed cheerfulness amongst the people. When the General Staff had informed the Kaiser that everything was ready to overwhelm the nations standing in the way ol ICultur, the factor of the British Navy was, we may be sure,'not left out of consideration, but von Tirpitz was not afraid of the British Navy; he had something up his sleeve to render it liars de combat. It was the German submarine fleet that had been secretly built for the occasion. By its means ■Britain was to be isolated, the Navy being reduced by torpedoes until it could je met and smashed by the "invincible"

German Navy. This was to be .one of llie "surprises" of the war. The Huns were very conlidenf, and placed, as usual, explicit faith in the assurances of the war camerilla. But they reckoned vithout the resource and adaptability of British seamen, who immediately set to ivork to devise means for combatting ,he menace. In a short time they had it well under control. Yon Tirpitz's vessels left 'Kiel and Wilhelm'shaven in dieir dozens, but few returned to give accounts of their doings. They bad been trapped by the despised British seamen, and not a few had found watery graves. We have not yet been let into the secret of how our men were so successful; that we cannot expect until the war is over, but not ttie least fascinating story in connection with the gigan;iee struggle, it is certain, will be that dealing with the silent, but dangerous and very important work done by our seamen to defeat the enemy submarines. We know that one of the many devises us-ed to snare the submarines is a system of steel nets, and to overcome this the Germans have evidently been employing t'hei'- ingenuity of late. The bow scythe is the result. But just as U.o British have combatted, and success-

:'ully, every means devised by the enemy, so can we confidently expect this ■ now development to be successfully met. Our naval men do not brag of what they arc doing, or have done. That is against the. tradition of the service. They prefei that results should speak for their work. And probably we will not have long to wait for results in this case. The Huns have failed, absolutely failed, to shake British naval supremacy, and this new' campaign of submarine "frightfulness," we can rest assured, will meet with 110 better fate. It will probably (lefeat its own object, that is if the German boast as to the ruthlessness to he followed is given feffect to. All vessels trading with Britain, irrespective of nationality, are to be attacked without V/arning. America threatens that if this is done she will "break off relations" with Germany. With other countries a gtverance of diplomatic' relations is

Bynonomous with a. declaration of war, but America has been kicked so often by Germany that the threat might prove Eii empty one. For that reason it has little or no effect upon the Teutons' policy. Given that by the new devices the German submarines can escape the British naval traps, there still remains •Jte arming of all merchantmen trading to Britain. It is significant that only mine per cent, of the attacks on armed merchantmen have been successful, as [ against 77 per cent, on unarmed vessels.

Some men, like Lord Beresford, advocate thoroughly arming merchantmen, '.>uv, beam and quartet. A sliort time ago we could not supply the necessary guns and skilled gunners. But now there is an abundance of both. Britain may bo inconvenienced for ;>. time by the new submarine activity, but she can never be defeated by these means. There are signs that Britain will not content herself with what is a defensive policy, but will carry the war into the enemy's ports. The new Admiralty Council is composed of men essentially o>' action and determination, who can be trusted to deal effectively with any' iw menace or carry through an enterprise demanding courage, determination and ability on the part of our naval men.