ON THE SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 October 1917, Page 5

ON THE SEA.

THE LOSSES SINCE FEBRUARY EQUAL TOTAL FOR PREVIOUS WAR PERIOD. WHAT AMERICA MUST DO. SIX MILLION TONS A YEAR. Received Sept. 30, 5.5 p.m. London, Sept. 20. It is' stated on behalf of the Ministry of Munitions that) the shipping losses since February 1 are roughly equal to the total losses for the war period before that date. It is therefore necessary for America to turn out* all the. ships possible. The submarines will not cut off the Allies' munitions, but the situation will not be satisfactory, for unless America maintains her shipbuilding capacity, she will not be able to send armies, food and fuel to Europe. The Germans may be expected to destroy a further 200 ships by next spring, and the present food supply will bo .exhausted by then; also, America will be obliged to maintain her anmc3 in the field, requiring an enormous number of ships. There is only one standard of -building for a country with such resources as America, namely, to outbuild with the Allies the submarine destructions. If this means building six million tons annually (which is thrice as much as Britain ever built annually, and five times as much as America has built), the task is not impossible, provided America makes her effort comparable with the Allies' achievements in the war period. The Germans are not sinking more than five million' tons of Steel annually, whereas America's present output of steel exceeds forty million. As to labor, America would not probably require more than half a million men, mostly unskilled, and this task is nothing com--pared with the efforts of the principal Allies in ojther directions. For example, Britain, in addition to creating a new army and providing munitions, has trebled the navy's size and strength, also adding a million men thereto. RUSSIAN DESTROYER MINED. Petrograd, Sept. 28. The Russian destrover Okhotnik has been mined and sunk. Eleven of the crew were saved.