GERMAN SUBMARINE CLAIMS

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 30, Issue 28, 12 April 1918, Page 4

GERMAN SUBMARINE CLAIMS

A statement regarding the submarine campaign was recently made by the First Lord of the Admiralty, Sir Eric Geddes, to a representative of the Associated Press of America. Sir Eric said that all the '' curves'' to which he has referred in several of his speeches continue to bend in the right direction. Destruction of Allied shipping decreases steadily; construction of merchant shipping incearses steadily; construction of merchant shipping increases steadily; sinking of German submarines steadily rises. "There is still another curve which I keep," he said. "I have never told the public about it, but it gives me personally much cause fox satisfaction. It is a curve representing what I call the 'facof exaggeration' in the German official statements of U-boat results. Every month since the unrestricted submarine war began the Germans have issued an official statement of the total amount of tonnage alleged to have been sunk during that month. Every month that statement comes to my desk and is compared with the actual totals as shown on our records. It would be only natural to expect some difference, for submarine commanders would naturally include in their reports a few ships which they torpedoed but which wc afterwards saved. But we found that there was a greater difference than could be explained in any such way. We found from the very first month that there was a certain 'margin of exaggeration.' That is, the German. Admiralty always added a few thousand tons for good measure. This 'margin of exaggeration' was fairly small in the early months of unrestricted warfare, when things were going along with a certain degree of success for the U-boats. It showed no particular increase through April, May and June, when the sinkings were highest. But with the lessening German success of July, August and September the 'margin of exaggeration' began to increase. The German Admiralty found itself obliged to falsify its returns more and more flagrantly in its effort to persuade the German people that the U-boat war was a continuing success. So I keep a record of the continued increase in the percentage which marks the German 'margin of exaggeration,' and this curve, I believe, is a fairly accurate reflection of the German official mind, and an official confession that the U-boat campaign is regarded as a failure by its own leaders. Sir Eric referred to the German claim that decreased sinkings were due to the decrease in the number of ships sailing. "That is false," he said. "The. sailings and departures are just as numerous as they were a year ago. There are just as many targets for the submarines in their zone of operations, but our improved defensive measures leave them few opportunities to make bullseyes."