The Waikato Times. With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1916. THE SUBMARINE

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13274, 1 September 1916, Page 4

The Waikato Times. With which is incorporated The Waikato Argus. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1916. THE SUBMARINE

We have of late heard much less about 1 lie submarine attack upon the merchant vessels of Great Britain and her allies, as weli as of the neutral nations. It may be that submarines have been captured and destroyed to an extent which has practically stopped their powers of mischief, and it would be very gratifying lo learn that this was the case. We shall not, of course, know the full truth about this until after the war, for the navy guards its secrets very closely. But though we may believe that much has been done to destroy this new form of danger, we can scarcely think that they have been captured so extensively as to lead to a practical cessation of the peculiar form of warfare which they pursue. The essence of the submarine's value is its power of hiding and re-appearing in unexpected places. It is too slow to be able to overtake a liner, its inferior gun-power makes it quite ineffective against armed vessels. Like the hired assassin of the past, it stabs from a dark corner, and is only effective when it can come unexpectedly upon its prey. The ordinary cruiser which challenges a merchantman and searches her for contraband, takes the ship to the nearest port and makes a prisoner of her. but such a course is impossible for a submarine, for she might and probably would meet with a British vessel before reaching port, and would have to abandon her prize. The only effective action open to the submarine is to sink the merchantman at sight.' This, .of course, is murder, and two short years back would have been denounced as impossible, even by Germans: but war leads nations rapidly on the downward path, and German sailors commit murder, and German pastors preach approval of it, without realising the depths of infamy they have reached. Naturally, however, neutral nations have taken a different view, and ihe United States, as the largest of these nations and the one most affected, has conducted a long and angry controversy with Germany on the methods employed by the submarine, ending with an emphatic declaration that if German submarines sink vessels at sight which carry American subjects that diplomatic relations will be broken off. As this method of war-

fare the only one the submarine is capable of carrying on, Germany had to face the alternative of abandoning the employment of submarines or of breaking with the United States. They are particularly anxious not to do this, because it is with the United States that they look forward to trading largely when peace is declared. They realise that they will be greatly hampered in trading with the allied powers, and if they can maintain diplomatic relations with the United States it is from that country they look to draw their supply of food and of raw materials. In addition to that a large number of their finest liners are interned in America, and would become prizes in the event o'f war between the two nations. The German, therefore, has swallowed his pride, and bowed to the "idiotic Yankees." ft is true that the facts are capable of a different explanation, and it may be that the Gerplanation, as mentioned in a cablegram on Wednesday, and it may be that the Germans had realised that the utmost success which could be expected from the submarine warfare would not materially affect either Great Britain's trade or its food supply, so there was not sufficient motive for quarrelling with the United States. The German Chancellor has assured his countrymen that there was no prospect of starving Great Britain, which may be his honest conviction, or may be a political statement made to cover e a diplomatic defeat. In any case the submarine lias practically ceased its career of murder on the high seas for the time being, and no other occupation has been found for it, as it is ineffective in naval warfare. Since the early days of the war, when three cruisers were almost simultaneously torpedoed, we have heard of no result of any kind from submarines used in naval warfare; and now that the naval authorities of the United States are about to greatly enlarge their own navy, it is on the big vessel of the Dreadnought class that they lay the emphasis, and on which the great bulk of the money will be expended. I'l truth, unless the submarine is to be ; ;ed as the Germans have used it, for ;e sinking of merchant vessels at

:ght, the value of it is very circumscribed, and is chiefly limited to harbour defence. Its employment in the peculiar manner of the Germans will probably lead to the arming of liners with one or two guns, and the carrying of men who have been trained to the use of such weapons, and by this means the theory of the armed nation will be carried one, step further. Not only will war be expected to involve the activity of every man, woman and child in the nations which are fighting, but it will be recognised that on the outbreak of war the liners of neutral countries run the risk of being sunk by torpedoes from vessels which cannot afford to remain long enough on the surface of the water to ascertain the nationality of the vessel they propose to attack. From this it is but a short step to consider the submarine as a pirate to be attacked and destroyed by all civilised people. A federation of the chief powers of the world bound by treaty to maintain certain

forms of international law seems an ideal 100 far .'♦ay to lie seriously considered, but it may he nearer realisation than we fancy, ami it can at least he said that Herman submarine warfare !k:s made it manifest to all civilised races that they have a common interest in the suppression of murder on the high seas.