The Daily News. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1917. THE HUNS' LAST HOPE.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 February 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1917. THE HUNS' LAST HOPE.

we are torn oy uenm tnat it ucrmau submarines can gink a million British tons monthly, besides deterring three millions of neutral tonnage, they will fcrce Britain to consider peace. This expectation is referred to by a member of the staff of Mr. Gerard, late United States Ambassador to Germany, who is on his way home. He states that the German people are "peace crazy," and that they want peace now, almost at any- price. The rejection of the Kaiser's peace offer seemed, he states, to break their spirit, but the submarine declaration revived their hopes. Everyone now believes that the sea war will reduce England, and cause the Entente to collapse. But the British authorities are not dismayed. They are devising and applying means for meeting the new danger, evidently with considerable success, for the submarine "bags" are not increasing. They consist for the mostpart of neutral ships, which are unarmed, and the smaller British ships, likewise unprotected, the proportion of armed ships which have escaped submarining being three to one compared with the unarmed. A noteworthy feature of the new campaign is that the Germans are getting very few of the bigger British vessels, -which are armed and have aboard trained gunners. So long as they can enjoy this immunity, there is no danger of reducing Britain into considering peace terms unacceptable to her and her Allies. It is the last card the enemy can play, and how desperate he is is shown by his flouting all the neutral nations and risking war with America. For the smaller neutrals he cares nothing. He can punish any of them at will, at anyrate for another month or two until the Allies have tightened their stranglehold. He cares little either for the United States, which he knows is not in a position t- materially assist the Allies for some onsiderable time. It cannot be denied that the tying up of a part only of the neutral shipping is inconvenient to Britain at this juncture, when over half of her own shipping is being devoted to war purposes. It is this factor that affects British trade more than the operations of the submarines, the losses from which in the past have largely been made up by new construction and purchases of neutral shipping. To what extent the trade is affected is revealed by a Board of Trade

return, which states that the tonnage of ships entering and clearing British ports with mercantile cargo was for the eleven months ended November, 1913, 02,220,720, whilst for the eleven months ended November, lfllli, the total was 2:i,085,"8T. This great decrease is accounted for by the enpmy ships being lied up, and the number required for military and naval purposes. Of course there is nothing alarming in so considerable a dropping oil in trade. It is a time when the nation is lighting the greatest nntasoimt she has ever had to face. The wonder is that, in the circumstances, the nation has been able to retain so large a volume of trade, and at the same time provide an army of at least five millions and a navy absorbing probably another million, and supply them with the necessary supplies and munitions. The main thing for Britain is to ensure the provisioning of the army and navy and the supplying of the materials required for war purposes. This she has been able to do with only half her mercantile fleet and the help of neutral gripping. The reduction of the latter by Germany's new methods of "frightfulncss l '' will, as we have said, prove inconvenient, but will not all'ect Britain successfully carrying on the war. Evidence of this is afforded in the statement made by Lord Lyttou representative in the House of Lords), w ! ho pointed out that the nett losses from all causes during thirty months

was only five or six per cent. Up till a few months ago the needs of the mercantile murine were subordinated to naval necessities. These have so far been satisfied that attention can now he given to tho construction of merchant shipping. Under the new regime, new methods are being adopted to, facilitate building, notably the standardisation of vessels, whilst skilled artisans in thousands have been brought back from the army to assist in the work. Very soon the British yards will he turning out cargo-carrying vessels in hundreds, and the Government is proceeding in the direction of almost iiniversal requisition of the new standard ships being built. The authorities ar: also organising and developing the food resources of the Bntish Isles, with a view to making the country more self-supporting. At the some time waste of food is being stopped, and a start has been made with the rationing of the population, whilst only essentials are being carried on the ships. In these ways tho authorities are meeting the new situation. There can be no dcubt of their ultimate success. We can put the utmost confidence in our sailors of both services, the navy and rtiercantile marine They successfully overcame the previous submarine campaign, and they possess sufficient resource and the courage to checkmate the present campaign. The Admiralty and Sir J. R. JclUcoe are not dissatisfied with what lias been done in the past fortnight, or with the number of submarines that will never return to Germany. We cannot 'expect, however, to go through •without set-ibacks and losses. \V« are fighting a foe .whose back is to the wall, who is struggling for dear life; but we can rest assured that ultimately our defensive measures will prevail, as they are already prevailing as regards our largest vessels, and the last hope, like all the other sanguine hopes of the nation of "super-men," will be dashed to the ground. We are now entering on the final stage of the war, and wo can expect momentous happenings during tho next few months.