THE SUBMARINE MENACE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3337, 27 February 1918, Page 15

THE SUBMARINE MENACE.

The Admiralty supplies the following: figures of shipping for the week as relating to submarines, which compare with the previous week as follow: 1 Feb. 10. Feb. 17. Arrivals for week 2201 2322 Departures for week 228* 2393 Vessels over 1600 tons sunk 15 12 Vessels under 1600 tons sunk 6 3 Unsuccessfully attacked ... .11 8 The French shipping returns show that the week's arrivals totalled 919, and the departures 876. There were no sinkings. Three vessels were unsuccessfully attacked. > The Italian returns show that; two steamers were sunk. ~-,., '.'. A wireless message from Madrid states that the Spanish ship Marcospio, from New York, was torpedoed 200 miles from the Canaries. The steamer Claudeo Lopez saw

the submarine fire 40 rounds at the sinking vessel. The Claudeo Lopez rescued the crew. Spanish newspapers are indignant, and demand the breaking off of relations •with Germany. At a meeting of the Union of Officers of the Danish Mercantile Marine the nresident condemned Germany's methods of submarine warfare, -leclaring that the relations botween neutral a*id German sailors ought to be suspended for a long time. The jnzotiug rose en masse and applauded. Dr Davis, formerly the Kaiser's dentist, has arrived at an American port. He declares' that the Germans are no longer confident that the U boats can win the war. The -whole nation is clamouring for peace. A German guardship was mined in the Baltic. Her crew of 20 were lost. FRENCH TRANSPORT SUNK. A French transport was torpedoed in rhe Mediterranean Sea. One hundred and ten lives were lost. ' SHORTAGE OF DESTROYERS. Admiral Jellicoe was a guest of the Aldwych Club. He said destroyers were the great antidote of the submarine piracy. We were short of destroyers at the outbreak of the war. We thought too much about Dreadnoughts. The Germans feared our destroyers above anything else. People must not wonder that enemy destroyers got past the patrols occasionally, even frequently. He added: "If they came often and fight tip-and-run raids they will get caught as by the Broke and the Swift. The visibility of enemy destroyers at night is represented by a pin point on a big map of the North Sea. You do not hear of the visits we pay the German vaters, but the Germans know about them. There are no targets for our submarines. The enemy come out only once a year. It- io a boring business waiting for the annual shot." Admiral Jellicoe said he beBeved the navy had sunk 50 per cent, of tho German submarines in the North Sea and the Atlantio and Arctic Oceans. RECENT GERMAN RAID. In the House of Commons, in reply to a question, Mr Macnamara said it was Undesirable to give information regarding Lha recent German raid in the Channel. The contention that German raiders and •übmarines could operate successfully in the Channel and the Strait of Dover was entirely unjustified by facts. No matter how completely they controlled tho sea, they could not always prevent such attacks on a dark night. The Admiralty had every reason to be satisfied with tho results achieved during recent weeks by tho admiral commanding at Dover., GERMAN RAIDER CAPTURED. A British auxiliary cruiser captured tho Serman steamer Dusseldorf on a voyage from Tromsoe (on the north-west coast of Norway) to Stettin (in the Baltic).