The Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Third of a Century] FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1917. AMERICA AND THE WAR.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 44, Issue 134044, 11 January 1918, Page 4

The Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Third of a Century] FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 1917. AMERICA AND THE WAR.

It is a little more than seven months since tho first American destroyers "reported for duty to a British naval oflicer in British waters. '' When will you be ready for business?" was the British query. "Wo cau start at once," was the American reply. And start they did, with results such as we see in tho submarine section of the war. Steadily, month by month, the toll of merchant vessels grows smaller at the destruction of German submarines increases; and the strong belief is that losses through j submarinism will continue to decline. We have always thought that a sufficiency oi" hydroplanes must in tho end prove the doom of the under-water craft, especially when the airmen have fast surface vessels to follow out their directions. At any rate, the inference I seems sure that the hope so pathetically [ clung to by the enemy must inevitably I bo given up even before the weight of American battalions has been felt on Western battlefields. Long years ago we were diligent in the study of the American Civil War. The knowledge then g*sned inspired in us a wholesome respect for American resourcefulness in tho first place, and for American grit in the second. A littlo glimpse of the former has been foreshadowed. American vessels are to be rendered much more invisible than they are at present. There is to be an improvement on the "smoke screen" invented by the British navy. That is very dense while it lasts, and is effective. But it has a tendency to rise, it may be dissipated by tho wind, or it may l>o pierced. Tho American dodgo is to create an artificial fog which extends itself to a great distance, and, apparently, persists. The value of such a screen goes without saying. The evident drawing together of the South American Republics is a highly promising indication of the trend of opinion south of the line. The German authorities who made known their determination to bring tho whole of South America, as well as tho greater part of China, into subjection to their sway, must watch such signs witlf'as little pica-

sure as they havo seen tho turning out of every Hun official from the great Middle Kingdom, or the Great Central Republic, as it may now be called. Brazil and Argentina are in close conference. It is but a matter of a little time, probably, before Chile and perhaps others join in, the whole hemisphere combining from the Arctic-to the Antarctic.