DAY BY DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14591, 15 February 1921, Page 4

DAY BY DAY

While it may be true that war at sea will always be decided The Navies by a fleet action as some of strategists argue, the late The Future, war demonstrated that

big ships are useless in protecting a mercantile marine against submarine attack. The war finished before any effective remedy was found for tiie submarine, though it was much harried by the enormous flotillas if patrol craft armed with depth charges and equipped with hydrophones, and the elaborate convoy system reduced its opportunities of attack. It is claimed that the Germans have invented a new type of armoured submarine proof against depth charges, and able to face torpedoes. If this is so, the proidem of protecting a vast mercantile marine will become still more difficult. The most effective reply would be i submersible merchant vessel, but this is a measure to which no nation would resort save when in desperate straits in a war. The British "K" class submarines built during the latter stages of the war had a displacement almost equal to that of a light cruiser, and a still later type appeared armed with a 12-inch gun. With the development of aerial and under-water attack only an expert can venture to guess what the navies of the future will be like—and the experts who really count are seldom communicative in advance about their guesses.