BRITISH SAILORS NOT INTIMIDATED

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 31, 5 February 1917, Page 7

BRITISH SAILORS NOT INTIMIDATED

ADMIRALTY - WELL AWARE OF

THE GERMAN POWERS'

(AUSTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.) LONDON, 3rd February,

Germany's threat is not making the., least difference to the. crews of our merchantmen. They are confident of the Navy's power to cope with evei'y difficulty.

The National Sailors and Firemen's Union secretary states : " British sailors will not be intimidated by threats of frightfulness'. Nothing the Potsdam pirate can do in the future can be worse than the terrors our seamen have experienced in the past. If twenty ships sign on today there, will not be the slightest diffl' culty in getting men. They are made of the right stuff."

The consensus of opinion in shipping circles is that the only difference now is that the Admiralty will have to cope with more numerous and larger submarines. It is stated that three submarines are completed every week in Germany, and that there are sixty, boats between Dantzig and Wilhelmshaven. The crews have been given intensive training, and promised high rewards. The British Admiralty has long known these facts, and has devoted unremitting attention to the vital business of suppressing the menace. The Admiralty has also greatly increased experience in dealing with minings. The Germans are continually mining certain parts of the North Sea, and . our trawlers are regularly sweeping up the mines. The German mining craft are now going further afield, but it wil) be impossible >.to mine the ocean. Minefields must be placed on certain banks and in certain narrow waters, where they can be discovered.