READY FOR IT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 210, 6 September 1939, Page 4

READY FOR IT.

SUBMARINE MENACE.

BRITAIN'S CONVOY SYSTEM

NEW METHODS WILL ASSIST,

•Armed with tho experience of the Great Mar, when the evolution of the

convoy system proved an effective answer to the submarine menace, Great Britain has taken immediate steps to

deal with the same problem on this occasion. The Navy's action in reintroducing the convoy system for the protection ot shipping has been none too soon, as tlie events of the past few days have shown. Already the world bus been shocked by the torpedoing of the Atbenia— but iii that shock there the consolation that in the Great. War the methods evolved by Britain to gjiard against such happenings effectively nullified the German effort.

here is further reassurance in that in the interim since 191S Britain's weapons for dealing with submarine wartare have been vastly strengthened. Detectors on British warship* can trace the path of any approaching underw *'t O l ciaft, and the ships are equipped with highly efficient weapons for dealing with such era ft. To the convoy system and to these weapons Britain looks with confidence in this testing |K-riod. Old Campaign Revived. rile sinking of the Athenia leaves no doubt that Germany still regards the submarine as a major attacking weapon in combating Britain's sea power. The 1 .'5,000 ton liner was attacked in the Atlantic, west of the Hebrides, and this indicates that Gorman submarines are in position to attack vessels bound for British west coast portu. The route taken by most German submarines during the Great War when bound for the Atlantic was north of Scotland. It is probable that the submarine encountered by the Athenia was proceeding southward to the Atlantic sea lanes after rounding the Orkney Islands.

I ho importance of the submarine wiinot fully realised even by Germany until some time after the start of the Great War. Into that struggle at the. outset Germany took onlv 2H submarines. It was after the discovery of the losses that these vessels were able to inflict 011 Allied shipping in the early r-tages of the war that Germany began expanding her U-boat fleet. Even so it was rarely that more than 30 German submarines were operating at any one time, even at the height of the campaign.

To-day, it is understood, Germany has facilities for building rapidly a much larger num'ber of subfnarifies. than r-lie possessed under the terms of the AngloGerman Naval Treaty, so recently repudiated bv Hitler. Germany's strength as admitted officially last year was a* follows:—•

Twenty-four submarines of 250 tour;, nnnrcT with three torpedo tubes and a 'machine-gun, and carrying a crew of 25. Two submarines of 712 tons, with *ix t or|>edo tubes and one 4.2-inch gun. These vessels have each a crew of 40.

Ten submarines of 500 tons with five torpedo tubes, and one 3.7-inch gun. The crews of each of these number 35. Convoy's Success. British and other Allied shipping had been seriously threatened when, in 1917, the British Navy decided to concentrate 011 the convoy system, which reduced the weekly losses of merchant ships to a remarkable extent. Every known method of protecting ships had previously been tried—camouflage, defensive gun armament, zig-zag courses in submarine waters, and the direction of traffic along patrolled routes. Yet in the second quarter of 1917 a total of 2.200.000 tons of shipping were destroyed.

The convoy system, quickly brought to a state of high efficiency, supplied the answer. I'.arlv criticism that the convoy system would lead to intolerable delays were effectively disproved, and the success of the measure justified all the hopes, that were concentrated 011 it. It proved the salvation of Allied shipping at a time when it seemed all efforts had failed. Mow effective it proved is shown by the rise and fall of the submarine trs a menace .to lie countered. In tjitr.third quarter of Wl7 the shipping losn-iiiwl -drcT|»j)ed* t«*• 1,500,000 t"ii~. and in 'Cite fourth-quarter "to I.WMUMMt tons. Ill' the 1018 quarters, all told, there was less than ;l,000,IMM) tons of shipping lost.

Most telling of all facts supporting the convoy system are the figures which lecotd that 88.000 shi|>s sailed under convoy-during the Creat War —with a los* of only half of one per cent. In 1017 -there were 75 German submarines sunk,"proving the effectiveness of the method for dealing with them.

Britain looks to the convoy system to protect her shipping 011 this occasion. The recently evolved methods for detecting the position of submarines, and for destroying them, should make that system e\e;i more effective. Treaty Violated. The sinking of the Athenia involved the tearing up of yet another treaty by 'Nazi Germany. Such an action is contrary to the provisions of the Treaty of London, to which Germany gave its assent in 1930, in company with the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, France and the various members of the British Commonwealth of Nations.

That treaty ceased to exist in 1936, with the exception of that portion governing submarine warfare and the rights of merchant shipping. On October 24, 1936, the German Ambassador in .London, Herr von Ribbentrop, handed to the British Foreign Secretary a Note announcing Germany's adherence to the following provisions of that treaty:—

"Except in the case of persistent refusal to stop on being duly summoned, or of active resistance to visit or search, a warship, whether surface vessel or submarine, may not sink or render incapable of navigation a merchant vessel without having first placed passengers, crew and ship's papers in a plade of safety. For this purpose the ship's boats are not regarded as a place of safety unless the safety of the passengers and crew is assured, in the existing sea and weather conditions, by the proximity of land or the presence of another vessel which is in a jwsition to take them on board."