Submarines.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19690, 6 August 1929, Page 8

Submarines.

According to yesterday's cable news the negotiations between Great Britain and the United States for the complete abolition of submarines as instruments of naval warfare are not likely to succeed. This, no doubt, is because both Italy and France, having gono in extensively for underwater craft, would not be parties to such an agreement. But with the memory of another British submarine disaster fresh in their minds, most people will regret that the two greatest naval Powers find themselves unable to abolish this costly and not very effective arm. For the truth is that submarines are still c'umsy an 1 untrustworthy, and although they are cheap to build by comparison with battleships, their cost in human life has been terrible. Twenty-four men were drowned in the recent collision, and sixty-six in the two previous British disasters. Nor is our own record worse than that of other Powers; one hundred and ten American sailors have been lost in peace-time submarine manoeuvres alone, and the French figures are probably higher. The submarine has so far shown no qualities as a vessel of war sufficient to counterbalance those drawbacks. If it attacks battleships it runs a risk greater than that of the vessel attacked, and if it attacks merchant shipping it can only do so in the most inhuman manner possible. It must also be remembered that warships can and do perform many useful functions in peace time, whereas the submarine is almost useless. Undersea navigation is, in fact, a chapter in the record of human endeavour which might conveniently be closed.