THE SUBMARINE CAMPAIGN.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1917, Page 5

THE SUBMARINE CAMPAIGN.

SUCCESS OF DESTROYERS. GERMANY'S U-BOAT STRENGTH. CREWS DEMORALISED. Received Sept. U, 1.35 a.m. New York, Sept. 10. Mr. Charles Grasty, the New York Times' London correspondent, states that the convoy system and other anti-U boat methods of the Allies, which are firmly established, for the past few months have been most successful. Large numbers of cruisers and destroyers in the English Channel are thwarting the Üboats, transports to France being practically immune. There is reason to believe that Germany is planning to carry her U-boat campaign into the ocean, in order to offset the Allies' attack?. It is generally known in naval circles that the U-boats in the Atlantic Ocean never exceeded twenty, and those off the British coast ten. Germany has constructed less than 300 U-boats, of which 150 are now existing. The necessity for constant repairs and supplies, and the difficulty of obtaining crews, owing to the sailors' demoralisation and fear of destroyers, together with the difficulty of obtaining torpedo material, accounts for the few U boats in actual service.

A correspondent sends figures, which may be relied on as accurate, showing that tho Allied and neutral losses for the past eight months, including August, approximate four million tons, exclusive of ships damaged and beached. The zenith was reached in April, when 200,000 tons were sunk weekly. U-boat men are unable to maintain their high pressure, and the reaction is noticed in the comparatively small losses for July and August. The multiplication cf losses is greatly increasing the nerveracking U-boat duty, the men being in deathly fear of the destroyers. Therefore, it is only necessary to maintain sufficient destroyers to reduce the sink-, ingfi to the level of new construction and thus defeat Germany.

NO ANXIETY AS TO FOOD STUFFS. STATEMENT BY FOOD CONTROLLER Reutor Service. London, Sept. 9. Lord Rhondda (Food Controller), in an interview, accorded to the London correspondent of the newspaper Handelsblad, declared that submariitism no longer caused anxiety as to the bread supply It had so stimulated cultivation that within a year the United Kingdam would be practically independent of imports as far as the chief foodstuffs vvero concerned. ' REDUCED LOSSES. Xew York, Sept. 9. The London correspondent or the !New York Times says that since June 30 the losses by submarine have been reduced by 150,000 tons monthly.