GERMAN'S SUBMARINE MENACE.

North Otago Times, Volume CVI, Issue 13975, 11 September 1917, Page 6

GERMAN'S SUBMARINE MENACE.

ENCOURAGING REPORT PROM LONDON. LOSSES REDUCED BY 150,000 TONS. MONTHLY. (Australian and Now Zealand Cablo Association,) NEW YORK, September 9. . _ The London correspondent of The New York Times says that since the 30th June the losses by submarines have been reduced by 150,000 tons monthly. EFFECTIVENESS OF CONVOY SYSTEM. SHATTERED, MORALE OP GERMAN SEAMEN. (Australian and New Zealand .Cable ; Aaioctatlon.) Received SeptemberUl, at 1.15 a.m; . • ' ■, NEW YORK, September 10. Mr Charles Grasty, the New York Times' London correspondent, states that the convoy system, and, other, anti-U-boat."methods of the Allies, firmly established during the past'few months'have been most successful and large numbers,, of cruisers aiid destroyers in the English Channel are thwarting the U-boats.. Transport* to France are practically immune. There is .reason to believe that Germany is planning to carry the U-boat „compaign into the .ocean in order to offsetthe 'Allies' attacks. It,isgenerally known in naval circles' that the U-boats in the Atlantic never exceeded twenty, and of t-Ue British.coast ten,' -Germany has constructed less than three hundred U-boats and one hitiidred'aitd fifty are now existing which arc in constant n6ed of'repairs' aiid siipplies. There is difficulty in.obtaining emvsj'owingto'thc sailors demoralisation (Il ?° tofear °l t ! ie together with the difficulty of ob-taining-torpedo material. This accounts for the few U-boats hi actual service. ■• •■• .;.„,,,.. . • The correspondent sends figures, which may be'relied upon as accurate showing that the allied and neutral losses during the past eight months,'including August approximate four million tons, exclusive of ships damaged' and bellied. The zenith was reached in April, when 300j(j00: tons were sunk weekly. The U-boatmcn were unable to maintain this high pressure, and t a reaction was noticed in the comparatively small losses in July arid August, the multiplication of the losses greatly, increasing thenerve-racking U-boat duty, the men beingin deathly fear of destroyers; Therofore it is only necessary to maintain sufficient destroyers to reduce, the sinkings to, the level of new construction and thus defeat 'Ger-' jtiany's campaign, ■ [