SUBMARINES

Colonist, Volume LVIII, Issue 14406, 17 May 1917, Page 8

SUBMARINES

"THE PROBLEM SOLVED"

A SENSATIONAL CLAIM.

LONDON, May 6 The "New York Evening World" says that Mr Saunders,. chairman 6f the American Naval Consulting Board the members of which include Mr T. A* Edison and other inventors, declares tnat the 'board has solved the submarine problem, and has submitted its plan to the Navy .Department, based on actual experiments.

Washington messages say that there is an extraordinary conflict of authorities and. statements as to the American anti-submarine device. 'Ml' Robins, official spokesman of the Naval Consulting Board, asserts that the board does not know of any invention as described. One is still being sought Mr Sprague, chairman of . the .Naval Board's committee on electricity a.ud shipbuilding, is also sceptical. ■ '"* Newspapers publish Mr Saunclers'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 has tested several of the sub-committee's plans involving an extensive use of electricity. These had been evolved by the gesius of a hundred inventors and perfected by Mr T. A. Edison. ' The scheme contemplated aggressive tactics, the most important ste»> beinn- the closing of the north end of' the North fcea by_several of the inventions. In New York the general opinion is that the means of icombating submarines referred to does not consist of a single device, but a system by which Great Britain and America will cooperate for a more complete blockade of the North Sea, even if it entails greatly diminishing supplies to the neutrals.

The Washington correspondent of the •New York World" says tha'S English and American naval experts are considering,, the comoating of submarines by mining the. North Sea, closing the waters between Denmark and Sweden or storming the Kiel Canal. ' According to the Washington correspondent of tße "New York Times" American mines will be strewn in German teritorial waters, because they are the most efficient obtainable.