THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 112, 11 May 1917, Page 6

THE WAR

Admiral yon Capelle succeeded 1 the-in-famous Yon Tirpitz as head of the German Admiralty.. It was frequently asserted that he was not of the' same "ruthless" temper as the inaugurator of the U-boats' murderous campaign. But he stepped into a flourishing practice; Germany found overwhelming reasons for continuing it; and if Yon Capelle's conscience is or has ever been opposed to the campaign, he has achieved an admirable victory over his scruples. It is true that he. has not made another Lusitania; but the deeds that the submarines have done during his regime cannot be adequately described in black ink To-day he is to be witnessed boast--ing about the success of the new campaign which began in February. He alleged to the Reichstag, with the consciousness of faithful accomplishment, that in the past three months the submarines have accounted for. 1325 vessels, totalling : 2,800,000■;' tons, fortunately, there are figures to refute his statement. Nobody has. seriously questioned the accuracy of the British Admiralty's weekly returns, and from these, with a little assistance and confirmation from Yon Capelle's own statement, something much nearer the .truth than his statistics can be reached.

To begin with, Sir Edward Carson in his February statement on the new campaign announced that in the first 18 days of that month 134 yessels of over 100 tons of all nationalities, totalling', 304,596 tons, had been sunk by submarines and mines. These figures give an average of 2280 tons per ship, which is a little higher- than the average tonnage of the victims in December and January. Admiral yon Capelle's figures give an average of 2113 tons. Now, since Sir Edward Carson made his statement, the Admiralty has issued each week a table of the, number of British vessels lost, and of those attacked.. The total number of traders shown in these tables as sunk up to 29th April (roughly Admiral yon Capellars three months): is 294 ; up to 6th May, 340. Giving him the benefit of the extra week, and taking the vessels at an average of 2200 tons, we have a total of 1,042,800 tons—not much over one-third of the German estimate. Even if we include, again for Yon Capelle's benefit, the vessels which escaped (now 200) and the fishing vessels sunk (97) and estimate them also at 2200 tons, the total dan only be increased to 1,697,000 tons. By no stretch of the imagination can losses of foreign ships, or of vessels under 100 tons (neither of which are included in the Admiralty's returns) make up the difference of 554 ships totalling 1,103,000 tons; in fact, the more small vessels are included in the alleged balance of ships the more absurd the balance of tonnage becomes. Nor will "missing" vessels account for any serious difference, for the Admiralty has just reported that only fifteen have been reported "missing" this year. Although it cannot be assumed that the tonnages arrived at in this calculation are closely accurate, they are not far from the mark ; and it is quite plain that if the British figures are' as truthful as they have been repeatedly declared to he, Admiral vort Capelle's statistics are pure guesswork, or worse.

The weekly statement of losses published to-day shows', as compared with the previous two weeks, a depline in the total number of vessels lost, a lessened proportion of large vessels, among them, an increase in the total number of attacks, and of course an increase in the number of escapes. The numbers of sinkings in the three past weeks were 55, 51, 46 ; and the highest previous weekly batch since 18th February was 28. The total numbers of reported attacks on ships were in the past three weeks 82, 75, 80; the previous highest, 48. Of the vessels attacked last week, 42^ per cent, escaped—a gratifying increase over the 33 and 32 per cent, which ruled in the preceding two periods. The highest proportion of escapes in the past eleven weeks was 48^ per cent, in early March, and the lowest, 28^ per cent, at) the end of the 1 same month.

Admiral yon Capelle is constrained to admit that losses of submarines have occurred, because the British defences are increasing both in quality and in quantity. The past eleven weeks have shown, that out of the total number of vessels attacked by submarines, 37 per cent, have got away; and that is, after all, a creditable figure considering the intsjjse vulnerability of an unarmed ship and the probability that. most of the vessels which the U-boat* tackle are not fittsi with guns, He 1* no doubt right

to ?ay that there is no radical■ cloiVnce: against submarines; but' his logios is faulty when he claims that they will guarantee Germany being able to hold out.. As- a matter of fact, they have not the slightest, material effect upon, Germany's ability to "hold out"; they reap not, neithei do they produce' soldiers. Morally their operations, especially when magnified by false statistics, may help the German people to bear their hardships a little'better. Their material effect is solely directed against the. stamina>of Britain; and Yon Capelle would have* been equally, effective if he had emphasised that point, the omission of which is curious.