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Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VII, Issue 202, 20 June 1917, Page 4

The American press stems very confident that the British and American Navies, between them, will find means of dealing effectively with the German submarines. After quoting such hopeful, though necessarilv indefinite, statements as fell from the lips of Admiral de Chair, of the British mission at a. reception tendered him by the American N avy League, the “San Francisco Chronicle” says that it is understood that British and American experts discussed at their conference in »v ashington three specific measures designed to put an end to German submarine warfare. One is the bottling up of the narrow strait between

Sweden and Denmark; the second, the mining of the whole of the North Sea, which would shut off entirely the trade of Holland, Denmark and Sweden ; and the third, storming the German naval base at Kiel and destroyinir Heligoland, Germany s Gibraltar. The third proposition has been discussed only as a last resort, naval experts being agreed that it would be a most hazardous undertaking. If the British fleet were sent, against. Kiel and Heligoland, which have fortifications of enormous strength, it doubtless would be assisted by American and French naval craft. Many naval officers believe Kiel could be taken, but at frightful cost. American navy experts, the “Chronicle" goes on to say, expressed confidence that some means will be found, and in the not distant futuie, to rid the «eas of the German submarines, or so curtail their operations as to reduce shipping losses from this source to a minim um.

While Americans are thus looking forward to a full participation in the quest of the submarine, their pressmen are by no means unappreciative of the measure of success Great Britain has herself achieved. One of them, Mr. Thomas Rich, when describing in the ‘'New York Sun” the work of the miniature British “chasers.” writes, thus: —"picture a long low craft with a draught of only feet, yet with sea-keep-ing qualities that have never been equalled by so small a craft. Picture a mosquito fleet of these ‘sea wasps,’ hundreds of them keeping up their vigil day night, in search of a Teuton submarine’s betraying conning tower and periscope. Picture the crew-, ten men to a boat, seeking hour after hour, day after day for the sight of an under-isea raider. . . • Each of these little vessels mounts a gun forward that hurls shells at the rate of 20 a minute. . • - The sea-keeping qualities of these little giants cannot be over-estimated- During one great Channel storm two of these tiny boats patrolled the raging water ceaselessly for 48 hours,, encountering mountainous seas and winds that blew’ hurricanes, yet both put safely 7 back to port in good shape. A feature of these boats that makes them specially adapted to seeking out and destroying submarines is their extremely light draught. A torpedo fired from a submarine . . . travells from 16 to 18 feet below trie surface. . . • Therefore this submarine chaser, drawling only —— feet of water, is immune from the danger of being torpedoed. The onlyfear these little motor launches have is of a direct hit by enemy gunfire, and such a thing is extremely improbable, because a submarine has to be on the surface before she can mount her guns for action, and in 99 cases out of 100 she would be submerged.”

Both the Allies’ and the Germans’ reports of the last few weeks —one of to-day’s German messages among them —have made particular and frequent reference, as one of the scenes of lively artillery bombardments, to the sector which lies between the point, a little west of Dixmude. where the Ypser Canal cuts the trench-lines to the North Sea. coast where the Yser falls into the sea. The fact that the Belgian guns have more than once been mentioned as playing a prominent part in the bombardments reminds us that the sorely tried Belgian army is still a factor which the enemy cannot overlook during the coming months. It was at the western end of this front that the enemy made one of his formidable attempts to force a passage to the Channel ports about the middle of October, 1914. The Belgians were at that time hard pressed by von Beseler, when welcome relief came from the sea in the shape of enfilading fire from the British monitors Humber, Severn, and Mersey. Later in the same month th enemy forces under the command of the Duke of Wurtemberg again attempted to break through, and were only foiled in their attempt by the flooding of the Yser, which was effected by damming the lower reaches of the river near Nieuport, a task which was carried out under the cover of the British guns from the sea. Io avoid the flooded area the Belgians southward of Nieuport fell back to the Nieuport-Dixmude railway.,They continued to hold Nieuport itself, however which accounts for the remarkable shape of the Allied line near the extreme left, where it runs almost due north-west from near Dixmude to the southern outskii-s of Nieuport. From here it runs backward in a loop, almost due can for a little over a mile, where it swings right round again to tne north-west, thus covering Nieu'y .rt and the mouth of the Yser Cana; It is on this extreme north-western sector that the Belgian artillery has been active. Heavy eannonaomg has been noted at so many points on the western half of the western fr<.nt that there may be no particular significance in the mention of its occurrence on the section mentioned. It may, however, be remembered that the German bulletins drew special attention to the artillery work which preceded the successful British effort between Ypres and Armentieres.