SUBMARINES

Nelson Evening Mail, 17 May 1917, Page 3

SUBMARINES

1 _ LONDON, 6th MAY. The New York Evening World says | that Air Saunders, chairman of the American Naval Consulting Board, the members of which include Mr 'i. A. Edison and other inventors, declares that the board has solved the submarine problem, and has submitted its plan to the Navy Department, based on actual experiments. I Washington messages say that there is an extraordinary conflict of authorities I and statements as to the American antiI submarine device. Mr Robins, official spokesman of the Naval Consulting Board, asserts that the board does not know of any invention as described. 1 'One is still being sought. Air Sprague, chairman of the Naval Board's cora--1 mittee on electricity and shipbuilding, is also sceptical. Newspapers publish Mr Saunders's statement that he is confident that a means has been found to destroy submarines, and that it is not a matter of speculation. The board had tested several of the sub-committee's plans, involving sin extensive use of electricity. These had been evolved by the genius of a hundred inventors, and perfected by Mr T. A. Edison. The scheme contemplated aggressive tactics, the most important step being the closing of the north end of the North Sea by several of the inventions. In New York the general opinion is that the means of combating submarines referred to does not consist of a single device, but a system by which Great Britain and America will co-operate for n more complete blockade of the North 'Sea, even if it entails greatly diminished supplies to the neutrals. It is hoped that the scheme will be carried out with the consent of the neutrals. The Washington correspondent of the New York World says that English and American naval experts are considering the combatting of submarines by mining the. North Sea, closing the waters between Denmark and Sweden, or stoi-m----;ing the Kiel Canal. 1 According to the Washington correspondent of "the New York Times American mines will be strewn in German territorial waters, because they are the most efficient obtainable.