BRITAIN AND WAR

Grey River Argus, 7 March 1918, Page 3

BRITAIN AND WAR

■ NAVAL WARFARE INCREASINGIy in our favour - submarinfTnetting idea UPSET. Austrian «T,a N. 7 C*w* A Bsoeiation. (Ree. March 6, 9.10 p.m.) LONDON. March 5. Sir Eric Geddes in the House of Commons, introducing the Naval Estimate, said, generally the naval warfare proceeded increasingly m our favour It continued to be chietly the trial of strength between enemy submarines and Allied submarines. We depended on indisputable information from neutral sources in regard to the certain success of other enterprises. The occasional raids on our convoys and on the English coast are j the natural outcome of a blockaded enemy trying to harass us. The blockading fleet believed ihat the exit of , the Goeben x and Breslau was a similar ■ raid. Tlie" loss of the Breslau was serious for the enemy. Regarding * the recent enemy raid in Dover ■ Straits it was commonly believed tKat the passage of submarines through Dover Straits had Been prevented by nets over obstructions. Since early in the war that was not the case. Undoubtedly a considerable number of submarines passed through the Straits towards the end of last year. Re- ! cently a more vigorous policy was s adopted, and a surface barrage main- > tamed across the Channel day and b night in order to obstruct the passage ? df Submarines, s\nd night time patrol * boats, numbering over a hundred - burned flares, so that any submarine attempting to pass on the surface Jh.»<l c a reasonable chance of being engaged!. ! A HOPEFUL VIEW. SUBMARINE MENACE AYJ2L& UNDER CONTROL. p r Ho reiterated tliat, submarine s menace was held but not yet masterJ ed, submarines being increasingly de- * struved. He was confident that this 1 increase would continue. He knew ' the German submarine, crews were s reluctant to put to sea^ esJ pecially the North Sea, North Atlantic \ and the Channel. The chances of i submarines in .those waters returning , lieme was about one in four, and recently Anglo- Americans were sinking ' submarines in home waters as fast as '1 they were building. Britain and the Allies were now able to devote more attention to submarines in the Mediterranean. The enemy continued increasingly to exaggerate the tonnage sunk in order to hearten the people and the .. losses in convoyed ships continued low. I BRAZILIAN WARSHIPS jqiNING o BRITAIN. Regarding the Dover raid, he said - ni«'ht raids of this kind could always is lxT undertaken by a determined ene- - my Dealing with anti-subniarme opn erntions, he said the Allied Naval Conr- til hud decided to extend thoso iitilised in home waters where they had a proved most successful to the Meditere ranean where the main operations v were now placed under the charge of c Vice Admiral Calthorpe. This was ie one of the first fruits of the Allied r Naval Council wherefrom they hoped a to derive material and increasing benefit. c The British were establishing at i- various points in the Mediterranean n and Adriatic, largo works for combined Aerial and Naval warfare. ir British and Naval Officers ats the re quest of the Greek Government, were rt assisting in the reconstruction and is reorganisation of the Greek Navy and o dockyards. Le He emphasised cordiality of the relations between the Allied Naval heads and announced that the forces in European waters would shortly be augmented by Brazilian warships. He especially dwelt on the close Anglo-American co-operation. The losses of merchantmen were still a tending to decrease. The loss of the >f world's^ tonnage .in February was just j- over half that of tlie previous February. The loss for five months to the end of February was ten per .cent less than for the corresponding five months The output of ships belonging to-Brit-tain in January was only 58,000 tons. He hoped the output in February would be double. The main cause of the decrease was Wuoyz troubles. lT Unless there was speedy improvement * the point whereat the prduction would ft balance the losses was dangerously a postponed^_ ' He emphasised that Britain must re- " W in the coming critical period -upon t her own resources, for a considerable - j-i'me must elapse before the cfasired American output materialised.

| GERMAN WAR AIMS.- --( Australian and N. Z. Cable Assn., and Reuter. LONDON, Marcii 5. Sir Auckland Ueddes, in a speech at Aldershot, discussing German war aims, said that the most dangerous time would be when Germany for her own purposes desired peace negotiations on the understanding that it was a drawn light. Then the pacifists, who were not numerous, but very ! vocal, would redouble their efforts. Peace under such a condition would mean that the world would sleep with the bayonet and rifle by its side, with security impossible until the Germans were convinced that their doctrine of j superiority was false. ,-'