PROGRESS OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 82, 31 December 1917, Page 4

PROGRESS OF THE WAR

At time of writing no detailed account is given of the- circumstances in which three British destroyers were lost, a week ■ ago, off the Dutch coast, but presumably they fell into some sort of enemy trap It is not known whether they were mined or torpedoed, but their destruction was accompanied by a regrettably heavy loss of life. Taking account of tho close watch and ward that is maintained by British light naval craft in the near neighbourhood of tho enemy's coasts, such events have been remarkably rare, and that losses are at times incurred by the patrolling flotillas is certainly as far as. possible from casting any discredit on the Navy or upon those who direct its activities. Some observations were made not long ago by an English naval critic which are worth quoting for their bearing on the loss now reported and on others. "A naval war in which one side is so predominant that the other avoids action," he remarked, . "is bound—in the absence of a decisive battle—to resolve itself, so far as naval incidents go, into a succession of successes by the weaker power, and a story of failure by the stronger. And as tho world generally is tempted to judge of the progress of the war. not by .the permanent and abiding conditions set up, but by occurrences, it may well happen from time to time that' public confidence may rise and fall.' The destroyers lost on this occasion were operating off the Dutch coast, but in his general policy df avoiding engagement and awaiting an opportunity to strike a surprise blow, the enemy enjoys .almost as many advantages in Dutch coastal waters as in the neighbourhood of his own coasts. Indeed, both in coping with tho submarines and in other aspects of its work, the Navy encounters some of its most formidable difficulties in the neighbourhood of neutral territorial waters.

Apart from a further considerable success gained by the British army in Palestine, few events in the land theatres are reported to-day. The fact that fighting on the Asiago Plateau has declined into "minor engagements" "is important, however, and bears witness to the efficiency of the Italian defence on that critical section of the front. Reports from the Western theatre speak chiefly of artillery bombardment. As a sequel to reports of a great, German offensive impending, it is stated that an abnormal traffic is under way in Belgium. • For all that appears meantime to the contrary, however, the predictions of German offensive action on the West front may have been set afloat by the enemy to supplement and assist the "peace offensive" to which lie is at present devoting a large share of his attention.

■ Some interesting detail evidence on the- subject of. tonnage losses was recently published iu Norway. A correspondent of tho Morning Post stated that the most complete set of figures regarding the progress of German piracy yet published was a return in the Norwegian Tidens Tcr/n of October 9, giving the losses from April to October of tho Norwegian mercantile fleet by the action of submarines. "The Norwegian fleet," he added, "is a largo one. It is courageous in carrying on its work. Its trading operations bring it constantly through the area whero tho German pirates chiefly operate. It has suffered cruelly, but the rate of losses has dwindled steadily since ApA'il. That fact may be accepted as giving a fair index as to the development as a whole of the Germans' murderous warfare, and therefore as conveying the assurance that tho U-boat is now a diminishing menace. The Norwegian paper points out that it was feared that the losses from Gorman submarine piracy would increase in the summer. As a matter of fact they decreased, and the piratical headquarters explained at the time that it , was not tho summer months but the darker autumn months which fav-

oured the submarine. But with fcho darker autumn months the losses again decreased. The conclusion comes to after six months' experience, covering all kinds of weather, is that the steady, continuous fall in the rate of losses shows a failure of the U-boat campaign. The submarine pirates remain a formidable menace, but they are being beaten." An interesting graph illustrates the facts which the Tit/ens Tegn has collected. This shows the record of losses to have been as follows:

Last week of -April 35,000 ton* Weekly average May 10,000 tons Weekly average. June' H,OOO tuns WeeJiy average July 11,000 toim Weekly average August 0,000 tons Weekly average September ... 0,000 tons first week ot October nil

So far as tho production of l new tonnage is' concerned a very important place is taken by American activities, and late accounts of the progress made in American shipyards aro most encouraging. One of the latest available reports on tho subject is that before many months have passed American .construction alone will more than counterbalance destruction by German submarines even if this does not further decline, as it now seems likely to do. Germany's rate of destructiveness, judging by the September figures, was set at about 4,500,000 tons a year. Against this, the experts retained by the American Government expect to turn out 5,000,000 tons of shipping annually after March next.