SUBMARINES

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 79, 3 April 1926, Page 11

SUBMARINES

PROPOSED BAN DISCUSSED

"A GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT"

ABB SUCH VESSELS WORTH

WHILE?

The repeated disasters which have overtaken British, American, French, and Italian submarines in the course of routine peace exercises have suggested that a ban should be placed upon the construction and maintenance of such craft, writes Archibald Hurd, ,in tho Melbonrno "Argus." The sinking of the submarine monitor Ml, with the sacrifice of the lives of 69 officers and men, has inevitably directed attention, prominently to this proposal once .more. It may be sa:4 that naval service involve* the direct risks, and they must; be faced. That is a legitimate argument from the .purely naval point of view, provided it is established that submarines can 'be employed in war without any infraction of the code of humanity which is observed in Nelson 'a plirase, among "the polite nations." But the British naval authorities, who have had a: wider experience than any other naval authorities, are agreed that submarines are unable, to injure large ; groups' of naval units, as the records of the Great ."War proved, since in the: eonrse of upwards of four and a half years the Grand Fleet, though it steamed in the submarine-infested waters of. the North Sea, a distance equivalent to a Voyage round the world, did not lose a single modern unit from this cause. The ■ men-of-war which were sunk were old and slow, and did not belong to the Grand Fleet, and they were moreover, designed without rogard to the submarine menace. No one had heard of defensive bulges in the hull of a ship or of zig-zagging when steaming, and the depth charge had not been invented. British naval officers are no- longer nervous of submarines. As the First Lord of the Admiralty stated at the Washington Conference, British naval opinion is convinced that submarines are not of the slightest value when legitimately employed, either jii offensive or defensive operations, and they cannot stop the movement of troops overseas. Although some transports were sunk during the Great War about 10,000,000 _ troops were carried overseas in safety, in spito of the activities of enemy submarines. "AN ACT OF PIRACY." Why then are there 340 submarines to-day in the service of the world, and why are upwards of 70 building or authorised? The explanation is that one naval Power always feels compelled to do what other naval Powers do, oven, though, unlike capital ships, cruisers, and destroyers, submarine cannot fight submarine, in normal conditions of war; a weakly-armed submarine, if attacked by a larger and more powerful vessel, ,would dive and Bteam away from danger. But is that a complete explanation? Is the idea of an attack on peaceful commerce still entertained? At the Washington Conference, Senator Boot, one of the United States delegates, drafted a treaty "to protect neutrals and non-combatants at sea in time of war." This treaty declared, in the first place, that submarines which encounter a merchant ship must observe the ordinary rules of war, and must visit the commercial ship and search her to establish the right of capture; and in the second, that any officer who neglected to take such action and sank the ship at sight rendered himself liable to punishment "as if for an act of piracy. / It was also laid down in the treaty:-— ■. "The signatory Powers recognise the practical impossibility of using submarines as commerce destroyers without violating, as they were violated in the recent war of 1914-1918," the requirements universally accepted by civilised nations for thc,protcci.on of V > lives of neutrals and noncombatants, and to the end that the prohibition of the use of submarines as commerce destroye 3 shall be universally accepted as a part of the law of nations, they now accept that prohibition as henceforth binding as between themselves, and they invite all other nations to adhere thereto." . That agreement, though it received the assent of the naval representatives of the British Empire, the United States, Japan, Italy, and Fiance, has never been ratified, because the French Government has neglected to confirm the action of its delegates. The treaty is consequently inoperative, and though the value of the submarine in legitimate naval operations these vessels are still being retained in large numbers, and others are being built. : No one can examine the thousands of records of British merchant ships sunk during the war by submarines or by mines laid^by submarines without being impressed with the tragedy and humanity which a ; Bubmarhe war on commerce involves. This is a matter which touches passengers by sea, as well as merchant seamen and fishermen. No fewer than 14,646 lives were, sacrificed during ,the war in this way. The de-stri-'-tion of the Lusitania, 1198 women and children, as well as men, and all of them defenceless, being drowned was merely an,incident in the long record of the inhuman attack on peaceful commerce. It has been my/ duty as, official historian of. the part which tho British mercantile' marina took in the war to sift fact from fiction, and the, story of this aspect of the contest, as set forth in successive volumes, stands unparalleled in tho sad story of man 's inhumanity to man. THE BRITISH CHALLENGE. , The memory of the submarine campaign was still fresh in men's minds When the British Government proposed at Washington that their construction should be banned. It was a challenge to humanity. Though the suggestion' met with considerable support, unanimity could not be reached, and the conference separated after doing no more than affirm Senator Root's treaty which, as has been stated has never been ratified. That is the position today. Those who'-have to travel by sea durihg any future war' have good reason to regard this problem us one which touches tho interest!) of everyone and is not to be regarded merely from the purely naval point of view. Are liners crowded with passengers, as well as hospital ships, with their sick and wountWl, to bo exposed once more to the menace of the submarine? Tho peril is forcing every naval Power to incur enormous expense, not only on submarine flotillas, but on anti-sub-marine measures. When the Great War came to a .close nearly 3000 ships under the White Ensign were engaged in protecting merchant shipping and limiting down submarines, with the result that upwards of Sou German submarines wcro destroyed, and if war occurred again the same measures would have apparently to bo taken. Since the international agreement to prohibit, the construction of submarines could not bo reached at Washington, it has been suggested that the Governments Of the British Empire, the.United States, and Japan should come to •"a gentleman's agreement" to ban these craft, and should announce to the world that the money which they now spend on submarines will bo devoted to developing and improving the means for destroying them. The submarine is no r a menace to surface men-of-war of high speed, if such vessels are handled with skill, but it is a menace to non-combatants in merchant aliins

unless a convoy., is provided, and that step involves delay, expense, and in-, convenience not only to travellers by sea, but to producers and consumers alike. What would be the psychological effect on the world if the three leading naval Powers outlawed the submarine, and declared that they would not only do all in their power to exterminate such craft by hunting them down, but would try as pirates any commanding officers who might be captured? Piracy is still a crime punishable by death in accordance with international law, and research and experiment have so far revealed no method by which the officers and men of a submarine mortally wounded can escape from the most horrible of deaths, helplessly imprisoned in the steel casket which not swiftly, but only after a lapse of time—24-or 36 hours it may be —becomes their tomb. The proposed ban raises a variety of issues apart from those of our common humanity, for of all men-of-war submarines, in proportion to their size, are the most costly to build, and also the most costly to maintain, and they involve every maritime country in ruiuously: expensive defensive measures, for even during the years of peace preparations have.to be .made ;against the peril of another inhuman war.against peaceful commerce' on the sea. Even if in the last analysis the issue is to be regarded as one of national safety, and all other: considerations are ignored, the problem resolves itself into the simple question, Are submarines worth while?