MANAWATU DAILY TIMES MONDAY, JULY 28, 1918. PERSIES ON EXPLODED HOPES.

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 13948, 29 July 1918, Page 4

MANAWATU DAILY TIMES MONDAY, JULY 28, 1918. PERSIES ON EXPLODED HOPES.

Captain Persius, the German naval critic, in a recent article in the Berlin << Tageblatt, ,> said: It is foolish to expect that the fantastic hopes that the submarines will starve Britain and rob her of her mastery of the sea w r ill be fulfilled. We must tell the German people the truth, as only the truth will make them confident of reaching the goal of peace and ensuring the existence of the German Empire. Discussing the submarine menace two months ago, Mr Archibald Hurd wrote: The enemy is destroying British, Allied and neutral tonnage at the rate of about 3,500,000 tons a year; British, Allied, and neutral countries will very soon bo producing tonnage at the rate of about 4,000,000 ton s a year. That favourable situation should bo reached in a few weeks, and thenceforward, owing, on the one hand, to the increased efficiency of the offensive-defensive measures, and on the other, to the greater volume of tho ships built, the upward ciirve in favour of the Allies should proceed in a manner to convince oven the Germans of their failure. There are indications that the Gormans themselves realise that the submarine campaign was a political blunder. In the first place, any measure of success in sinking ships which foil short of weakening the naval and military efforts of the Allies meant, as some of their writers recognised nearly a year ago, failure to achieve their purpose. The Allied navies have not been weakened; the Allied armies are stronger to-day than they wore; the submarine, which brought America into tho Avar, has not been able to interfere seriously with the transportation of American troops or American material. Tho Central Powers, suffering dire privations, can obtain little consolation from a policy which is costing them hoaA r ily in tho matter of material, labour and energy, and has so far had no appreciable influence on tho naval and military strength of the Allies. At tho outbreak of tho Avar Britain possessed between 17 and 18 million gross tons, and, as has been admitted, about halt that tonnage is utilised for na\’al and military purposes. War has shown that wo cannot supply a navy of 6,000,00(1 tons displacement and provide for the

needs of millions of British, Dominion, and Indian troops, in the various theatres of war, separated by many leagues of sea, besides lending a large volume of tonnage to France and Italy, without requisitioning a great number of ships. Those requirements are a lixed quantity. The losses sustained at sea have to fall upon the other moiety of our shipping. In those circumstances the loss of 3% million tons of shipping has to be deducted not from 17 or IS million tons, but from a matter of about 8% million tons, leaving available only about 5,000,000 tons to supply the needs of the population of over 40,000,000 people. While it is consolatory to know that the balance is turning in the favour of the world’s sea Powers, largely owing to America’s shipbuilding effort, which is now really making good progress, we arc specially interested in the British mercantile marine. Wo cannot afford to live on sufferance, dependent upon allies or neutrals for sea carriage. That is a war problem, but it is also an after--n>ar problem. When peace comes the country will be exhausted, urgently needing vast quantities of manufactured articles and raw materials, in order to set our industrial machinery going again, and to give employment to the millions of men released from the fighting forces, as well as the munition factories. We shall require at our own disposal more tonnage than the world has ever possessed, and wo shall have a mercantile marine of our own gravely depleted by enemy action and marine risks, unless we build at a swifter rate than is a.t present the case.