Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Third of a Century] THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1916. SUBMARINE CAMPAIGN.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume LXX, Issue 14579, 1 June 1916, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Third of a Century] THURSDAY, JUNE 1, 1916. SUBMARINE CAMPAIGN.

Although wo still hear of steamers being sunk by German submarines, the fact must havo been borne in upon tho mind of many readers that latterly there has been a marked, falling off in tho number of such incidents, as compared with the early weeks of the new campaign. This means but one thing, just as a similar falling off meant in tho first campaign—that tho British navy is gradually whittling away the numerical strength of the under-wator raiders. It will be remembered that at tho outset of that first campaign thero was something akin to panic among the pessimists owing to the toll taken of the merchant fleet by tho enemy submarines; but the successes of the latter gradually tailed off, until weeks would go by without a single ship being sunk. Tho reason was that the great majority of the enemy submarines engaged in commerce raiding had by then been either sunk or captured, and the remaining few were more often en-

gaged in escaping destruction than in effecting tho destruction of merchantmen. When the new campaign wad started, after a long spell of German inactivity at sea, and ships were sunk at the rate of two a day, there wero those who believed that owing to some marvellous development of the submar ines the Germans were able permanont ly to defy tho British navy. But tho more thoughtful realised that it would be only a matter of time for the second campaign to end up like the first. If a gang of larrikins split up into units, and set out to smash windows in a city, there would, even though, thoy had given the police notice of their intention, be a good deal of broken glasst beforo the., gang had been effectively dealt with. And this would in no way reflect upon tho effectiveness of the police force. Tho case is pretty analogous to the submarine campaign. The navy can bo relied upon to deal with the submarines sooner or later, but no one should expect it to get in touch with every undcr-water vessel immediately it leaves German waters'. Tho gang must be gradually hunted down— and if tho gang is large at the outset then so much more damage is it likely to do beforo it is seriously reduced in numbers. And in this iustauco tho Germans turned "out a fairly big flotilla of new raiders. For a considerable time before the latest campaign s_e practically ceased submarine raiding, and bent her energies towards getting together a large number of units which could be sent out to operate simultaneously. In ono senso it is regrettable that the Admiralty does not issue some sort of statement giving a broad idea of how tho anti-submarine operations o± tho fleet aro faring. During all tho weeks of the present campaign publicity' has been vouchsafed in only two or three cases of tho sinking or capture of enemy underwater craft. The pessimistic portion of the public have rather a short memory, and in their concern over the number of steamers that havo been sunk in the present raiding campaign they are apt to forget that a similar silence was preserved by the Admiralty in connection with the first campaign, and that that silence covered some anti-submarine work that was truly remarkable in its effectiveness. They are apt to think that the mere two or three instances latterly made public embraces the wholo results of the present campaign. As a matter of fact, those instances wero given out simply because the sinking or capture of the enemy submarines was effected in such circumstances as to render au attempt at secrecy futile. In regard to all other cases there aro very sound reasons why no details should be published; but some very general official statement might possibly be made that would tend to calm the nerves of the pessimists. However, thero will, of course, till tho end of tho campaign, be steamers sunk by submarines —it wero futile to expect tho navy absolutely to; prevent such incidents happening occasionally—but it is well that at present the slackening off of the enemy 's results, and what it stands for, should be emphasised.