The Dominion SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1917. OUR GREATEST DANGER

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3142, 21 July 1917, Page 6

The Dominion SATURDAY, JULY 21, 1917. OUR GREATEST DANGER

; The sensational account of the submarine situation transmitted to tho New York Times by a London coraeepondent may be heavily discounted. No dotvbt tho dispatch is a contribution to the organised effort that is being made to awaken public'opinion in America, to the tull gravity of tho issues at stake in the war, and especially to emphasise the necessity of sparing no effort that will tend to defeat the enemy's underwater campaign. Tho fact that the dispatch was passed by the British Censor counts for nothing. The Censor does not vouch for the truth of news passing through his hands. It is his function to hold up matter the publication of which would be of value or assistance to tho enemy. Probably the true explanation of the strident tone of urgency taken by 'the correspondent is to bo found in the opinion widely held in America that not enough is being done to combat the enemy underwater craft and ensure their ultimate defeat. This opinion has been expressed by journals which arc in no way, given to sensation-mongering, "and" would hardly, father the alleged facts relating to the submarine campaign published on this occasion by the New York Times. Tho Outlook, for instance, said on this subject in a recent issue:

We must hope, for a more effective means of dealing with the submarine tliiin lias yet .been worked out if we are to save tho situation. Possibly a miracle in. the way- of an invention nioy bo devised. In any event, right here is our real problem. AVlien the war opened, we had fewer than fifty destroyers aikl about :is many more ordered. Wo are building three of the 110-foot chasers. 'J'he .Allies havo ■ several thousand destroyers and chasers on duty., and the few we are planning to add will liardly affect the situation. Unless the Navy' .Department has information it is not -making public, we are not preparing to meet the situation with anything like an adequate programme.

And yet we must overcome the submarine menace, or all our elaborated preparations, -our armies, and our equipment, will go for nothing.

These observations are marked by sound sense. It is every whit as necessary that America should bring her full powers, to bear in coping with the submarine problem as that sho should co-operate in other ways. If she neglected to freely utilise her resources in developing an anti-sub-marine organisation her general cooperation with the Allies would be endangered. The sensational dispatch to the Now York Times perhaps represents an honest attempt to emphasise this danger. Its author, however, lias obviously played fast and loose with the facts of the submarine campaign. _ Ho credits the- Germans, with sinking nearly twice as much Allied shipping per mouth as they themselves claimed to have- sunk in their most successful month of Üboat warfare, and all his principal statements are completely at vari-. ance with official information.madepublic by British and other Ministers. ' The submarine campaign is first and foremost an attempt to starve or cripple Britain, arid three weeks ago, speaking at Glasgow, Mr. Lloyd George stated that his Government had come to the- conclusion, after the best advice, that the could neither starve Britain nor drive the armies out of the field abroad. A not inconsiderable amount of the evidence upon which this conclusion is based is accessible to all who care to look into the facts, and even if the British Prime* Minister had not spoken so definitely it would bo possible to hold that the (J-boat campaign has fallen a: long way short of the results that were hoped for by its promoters! The. Allies and neutrals have- lost a gr#at. deal of 6h.ipp.ing,

I a/fin the latest records show that the rate of destruction is still high. But tho rate has upon the whole been declining for several months, and this in what is unquestionably a period of maximum effort and at the time of the year most favourable to submarine operations. It has been pointed out recently that apart from her naval counter-offensive and the arming of merchant ships Britain is doing;a great deal by measures of internal production and economy and tho limitation of imports to neutralise tho efforts of the submarines. It may be noted here that the actual trend of the campaign is decidedly cnr»uraging from the Allied point of view. There is no doubt that up to about tho end of April last the outlook was exceedingly serious. The British Government has withheld complete returns of-'tonnage- losses for that period, but in the course of a debate in tho Chamber of Deputies in May last the French Minister of ' "Marine supplied comprehensive particulars. He summarised shipping losses, ivhich apparently included those of neutrals, as follows: — , "-. ... ..... Tons. August, 191-1, to Jan., 1917— By submarine 3,810,000 Other ivsir losses 1,700,000 Jan.-April, 1917— ' All losses 2,500,000 Against these losses, however, new construction up to January, 1917, totalled 4,402,000 tons, and captured German shipping 990,000 tons. These figures do not'include the enemy ships seized in United States and Brazilian ports —in the aggregate about 800,000 tons. It was pointed out that at the rate established in the first four, months of 1917 losses fo.r the year would bo 7,500,000 tons. The French Minister stated" that losscb for the first- twenty days of May totalled 330,000 (as against 8.50,000 tons for the complete'month of April). Mr. Lloyd George has since supplied later information, though without giving figure*. Speaking on May 25, ho said that if the ratio then established tor the month wer'e maintained the reduction uppn the April_ figures would be very, considerable indeed. At the end of June he stated that our shipping losses in May and June, though heavy, hundreds of thousands of tons beneath the* Admiralty forecast. Tho available statistics of the campaign suggest that the decline which began in Mav has upon tho whole continued.- Thcro is every need that. America should put her full energy, into the anti-submarino campa.ign, which is recognised to ho the greatest danger tho Allies now have to face, but as matters stand the outlook is much brighter than it was throe months ago.