THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 42, 18 February 1918, Page 6

THE WAR

Another of the exasperating "cut and run" destroyer, raids on the English ■Channel has been executed by a flotilla which got away -unscathed after sinking eight of the converted fishing vessels which the Navy uses for its anti-submar-ine and mine-sweeping operations. The British Admiralty reports that the enemy hurried off before he could be engaged, and no doubt the Germans worked carefully to • a plan which involved taking the minimum of risk. As a material blow to the British fleet, the raid accomplished very little; but as a. moral factor it is undeniable that'an incident of this sort, handled by the German press under official censorship, has a great Value to the enemy. AJI that value would have been lost had the enemy met the British fighting units and lost a couple of destroyers, because even, the best educated 'cieraan can strike a balance between the values of destroyers and armed fishing boats. In the critical condition of affairs in England, too, the enemy may have counted upon the result of such a raid as embarrassing to the Government. The destroyer adventure was followed next night by a submarine demonstration, off Dover, in which thirty shells were fired into the town and caused a few,-casualties; and next night Dover shared with London the experience of an air raid. Again the material results were trifling compared ■with the moral value to the Germans.

However imposing may be the preliminary move* for the great battles ■which the coming spring will bring, the background of the whole war remains the ocean and the merchant fleets thereon. Significant news has come in the past few days regarding this mainstay of the Allies, ajidit is not as "satisfactory as it might be. It promises still further hardships for. the people at Home—hardships which the inhabitants of the overseas Dominions feel not. at all, and in New Zealand especially appreciate only weakly and in reflex through the inconvenience of limited export facilities. The outstanding fact, as indicated in a brief cablegram published on Saturday, is that while a total of 6,000,000 tons of shipping was sunk in 1917, the amount built in Britain and tie United States was but 2,000,000 tons. In the absence of any means of calculating the loss of tonnage, it is useless to quarrel with the estimate given; in any case it is probably not far from correct. As for the figure for new construction/it can only b"e called disappointing, especially, as it covers all the main sources of new vessels and cannot be appreciably increased by the addition of foreign nationalities. Japan is widely supposed to be a rising' builder of ships, but is at present a very small producer owing to the lack of 'native steel and the great difficulty of securing it, at present, from abroad. A bargain was struck with the United States for the exchange of a large quantity of ship-steel for the 1 use .of existing Japanese vessels; but it fell through on accontt ci ifef high valnß and other restrictions imposed by the Japanese upon the use of their vessels. The Scandinavian countries have lost far more in tonnage than they have built, and. no other nations can. be taken seriously into account.

Jf the figure quoted by Mr. Bonar Law the. other day for Britain's 1917 output is. correct (1,163,474 tons), then the. "United States has done well to turn out «mghly 900,000 tons in the year ; but the. accompanying conclusion is that the British yards have failed by a vary large margin toi reach the estimate promised only, two months ago by the First Sea Lord. As previously remarked, Mr. Bonar Law may have been lnisreported. If, however, ' Britain has produced, as Sir Eric Geddas stated would be the case, some 1,900,000 tpns of new ships, then the balance of the 2,064,000 tons, to be credited to the United States, is small. There has evidently been some serious either in reporting or in achievement, somewhere. When the facts of actual accomplishment are so indefinite, it is impossible to rely on anticipations. The British authorities have not, apparently, promised any definite output for the present year, but have been content to anticipate a large advance on previous records. In the' United* States, however, the Federal Shipping Board has committed itself to promises • of enormous outputs, which unfortunately hava to be accepted with caution. The. Americans feel that their best road of progress is towards a great ideal which they hope, but may fail, to attain. _ Mr. Hurley, the Chairman of the Shipping Board, announced a few months ago that the nation intended to, and would, build six million tons of new ships in 1918; but at Christmas he issued a new estimate, a million tons less, and this is based on contractors' promises. It has perhaps nowhere outside America, been seriously belieyed that the six million estimate could be worked to; and to build five millions would be an extraordinary feat.

The thousand wooden-ship programme inaugurated by the late Chairman of the Shipping Board (Mr, Denman) has been completely jettisoned (except for the completion of vessels already begun) as impracticable and costly, and American efforts are now concentrated upon steel construction and the use of the material under methods as highly standardised as possible. The work of shipbuilding appears to be chiefly carried on on the East Coast, where the enormous congestion of business of all kinds is considered by some critics to be a serious- handicap. America may not reach the zenith of her output until the industry spreads to the Southern Coast and taps the interior of the country, which could supply enormous quantities of sectional parts-and send them forwai'd, by rail, oajiaj, and river, to erecting yards. The pait which concrete ships ■will play in the war is as yet vague. Huge barges of reinforced concrete are in use to some-extent, atjd seem to be of service in the English Channel, but they have scarcely been tested for ocean traffic. The 'United States could probably make such* ship* cheaply and quickly if they prove to be practical for transatlantic voyaging. It 13 probably not generally known that the United States has drawn heavily upon the fleet uf big steamers which ply upon. the Great Lakes. Many of thess vessels have been conveyed to the ocean. To pass from Lake Erie to Eake Ontario, and so to the St. Lawrence River, they 'have to traverse the Wetland Canal, which, parallels the Niagara. Mvei. TJiis canal was built for comparatively small vessels, and the locks are not long enough to hold the big vessel?. The problem i» solved by cutting the big ships in half, passing them through" in sections, and joining the halves up again. It was to prevent this transfer of a large quantity of useful shipping to this sea that Count Bern.ttorff's associates endeavoured to blow up the; locks in the Welland Canal. ' > . ,

The' Bolshevik envoy in London, Citi* zen Ljtvinoff, has been carrying an active propaganda with the object of inciting a revolt oh Russian lines. Documents "summoning the proletariat to a }<9velw!entt?y fishfi against t!is BriUsh Gpv«nunei\t «\i (h« B9uv|wMe!?' wv«

been distributed, under the stamp of the Russian Embassy, through the secretaries of British trade unions, and the Government has found it necessary to "consider" this form of activity. AHhough this is the first definite notice the cablegrams have given of direct Bolshevik activity in England, it is probable that Russian agents have been busy for n long time. Litvinoff was appointed on Ist or 2nd January, simultaneously with the appointment of another "citizen, Karpinsky, as Russian plenipotentiary in Geneva, and forthwith it was mads clear that an attack was contemplated upon the existing order around ;them. The Press Agency of the Russian Legation at Copenhagen stated on 2nd January that Trotsky, being of opinion that his envoys would not be recognised by the foreign Governments, had resolved that ,his_ representatives should not seek recognition by the respective regents (the "regent" in Switzerland was notnamed), but should be accredited to the peoples. The message went on to . say that the main task of the Bussian .envoys "will be by all means to work for the downfall of lawful Regents."