SUBMARINE WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 January 1918, Page 8

SUBMARINE WAR.

SOME ILLUMINATING DETAILS. FOOr. COMFORT FOR GERMANY. London, Nov. 2. The first, authoritative statement for some time past of the fortunes of the submarine campaign was made in the House of Common* yesterday by Sir Eric Geddcs in his maiden speech, both as an M.J\ and as a Minister. His brotJher, Sir Auckland Geddes, also occupied a seat on the Treasury Bench, and amongst the spectators in the gallery were Admiral Jel]icoe and Admiral Sims (U.S. Navy). Sir Erie commenced by admitting that, though lie had been very much in favor of giving a more detailed statement, of British losses of tonnage than has been the practice in the past, he had come to the conclusion that this was quite impossible wihout giving the enemy valuable information. SUBMARINE LOSSES. Since the beginning of the war, said Sir Eric, between 4(1 and 5(1 per cent, of t.h? German submarines commissioned and parading in the North Sea. the Atlantic, and the Arctic Ocean have, been sunk. (Cheers). They were as sure of that as they could be of anything. During the last quarter the enemy had lost sis many submarines as during the whole of IfllC. The German official figures for August stated that SOS,OOO tons of British tonnage had been sunk. In fact, the figure given was for all nationalities, but thev ended by saying: "How can the British mercantile marine stand this'/* Actually, they sank little more than a third of that amount of British tonof mige and a little more than half of all nationalities. (Cheers). For September their official figures are 072,000 tons, that ia, they bad gone down from SOS.OOO to (ir"2,000. Really they sank far less than a third ot that amount of British tonnage and less than half that amount ■i fall naionalities. The Germans claim Iwl our tonnage is falling so low that there are, not. enough ships at sea to enable their submarine commander; to maintain their bag. The.v Fay the game is setting very scarce, that there ia so little game on the ground that they canno wet a bag. . In April, which was absolutely the heaviest month of sinkings since the war began, they had no complaint. Thev did very well. They got a good bag. n September last, which is the month thev explain away because there is not enough tonnage to sink, the overseas sailings of all ships, 1600 tons and over, were 20 per cent, in numbers and HO per cent, in tonnage higher than in April. THE LONG ARM OF THE NAVY. TITe reason is that the »long arm of the British Navy has reached down into the depths, and the harvest reaped by the submarines is poorer, and the number of German submarines that cio not, return is increasing. Since April they have steadily decreased, and latterly very markedly decreased. It has been an absolutely steady curve down to .September. September was a most satisfactory month, the best we have had since we began the intensive submarine warfare, and October is very slightly worse than September, and is far better than any other month since the unrestricted submarine warfare began. I am not juggling with the figures. I mean far better. (Cheers). It is 30 per cent, lower than any other month except September, and September was the best month. The total net redueion since the beginning of ne war from all causes in British tonnage on the official register and applying it only to ships that are oceangoing, 1600 tons and over, is ih million tons, and tlita is 14 per cent, of the ships on the register in that class. That, reduction ha? taken place during the period while our armies, with their magnificent equipment, were receiving absolute priorityfi and that great, growth of our Xavv was simultaneously achieved, to the detriment of mercantile shipbuilding. Now that (lie submarine is, for the present at any rate, doing less damage anjl the resources of the countrv are again being devoted to a far greater and increasing extent to the upbuilding of the mercantile marine. 1 hope and T look forward to the net results being still more favorable. In spite of an increased number of ships passing through the danger /one, our defensive measures have, during the past, seven months, proved so efficacious that there has been a steady and very great reduction in the damage done by the enemy under-water craft. Meantime, we are sinking enemy submarines to an increasing extent. GERMANY CONCENTRATING ON' SUBMARINES. "On the other hand, I believe that the Germans are building submarines faster than they have hitherto been able to do, and that they have not yet attained their maximum strength. This submarine warfare is becoming a test of determination, grit, and ingenuity between the two contending forces. For the presen ; J come to -the conclusion that the submarine warfare is going well for us. At present wc are justified in feeling—--1 think so —tlhat his attack on our trade is being held, arid is being mastered, and we are justified in looting to the iuture with courage and determination, confident that lie will fail. (Cheers). There is one point, that I would like to make which will, I think, interest the House. There is one thing which is almost the most potent protection against ■ubma rineg thai-exist*. It ie no an ag-

plianee. Tt is a gift of God given to men on the ships. It is their eye-sight. Jf. is the good look-out. that. "is kept. A good look-out, kept by an experienced man covering a great'many attacks by submarines lias given us the following facts: 1 ° '•That if a submarine is sighted by the look-out on a vessel, whether the vessel is armed or not, it, is seven to three on the ship in favor of getting away; out of every ten attacks when the submarine is sighted bv the ship seven of them fail, but of every -ten aftacks when the submarine is not sighted eight, ship 9 go down. f GERMAN TONNAGE. ' At. the outbreak of war Germany bad about 5,000,000 tons of shipping. Today nearly half of it is sunk or in the hands of our Allies and of ourselves. She has got a <SO per cent, reduction, and none of her merchants go to sea. We have got a 14 per cent, reduction. It is well, however, that the Britisli public should be told wihat tliey are up against. We must consider the Alliance as a whole. We must not be optimistic, and say we can do all we like because submarine warfare is for the present., at any rate, going well with us. Some of our Allies may bo better or may be worse oft' in some particulars than we are. I think the country has accepted the position that we must lay our plans for a long war. I see no sign of its being a sh'ort one, and all by tiieir economy can assist to defeat the submarines." The fewer times a ship goes through the danger zone tllie less, are her risks of being sent to the bottom. Let me give some information upon the position of tile merchant shipping construction and the new national shipyards. If we had continued dui#_„ war with our merchant shipbuilding on its pre-war level, we should have been between 2,000,000 and 3.000,000 tons to the good, but expenditure of effort in one directioiT'calls for restriction in another, and wo were fortunate that we started well supplied. Even so. we are less than two and a-hali million tons down on the register of big ships. Might the country not justly take courage from the fact that in 1917, with our mercantile and munitions effort at the maximum, and with a call upon our man-power which reduced our available resources to the minimum, we shall have produced naval and mercantile tonnage to an extent almost equal to the best year ever recorded in our history, and in WIS it will certainly be Very much greater. (Cheers). NEW NATIONAL YARDS. ''We have decided that four new national yards, at least, will be necessary. We are encouraged by the responsible department to believe'that steel will be forthcoming for the programme. The output oj merchant tonnage for the first nine months of 1917 is 120 pet cent, higher than in the corresponding period of last year, and is very considerably higher than the total output for the whole of 1015, *slar '' "'1 vessels have now been ordered, representing nearly 1,000,000 grosi tons of shipping. More than half of these are already under construction. It is o. variation of an old theme made interesting by its delicate exaggerations. The docks now centrally controlled have attained a remarkable figure of user—oo per cent, of their possible nmximiim of time. This is indeed a strikingly satisfactory figure, and far better than peace-time commercial experience. Our monthly repairs of merchant ships is 1100 completed—dry \dockjtd and afloat. During one month of War vessels completing repairs was near|ly 1000—that is, in addition to the 1100 merchant ships—and that was by no means an abnormal month. Since the beginning of the war .11,000 war vessels, including patrol craft and mine-sleepers, have been docked or slipped, and these figures do not include repair work done for the vessels of our Allies. The arming of merchant vessels is proceeding, and it is tioped that before long all merchant craft will be effectively armed."