view raw text
FIGHT AGAINST MURDEROUS UBOATS Three important statements concerning the status of the struggle against the llxiits have been made in Kngland this week Sir Leo Money announced on July 7 that the tonnage of merchant ships sunk hail l een reduced in a most satisfactory manner the convoy system having proved effective for the protection of shipping to an extent highly gratifying to the Allies and the Tinted States On Wednes ¬ day Viscount Jcllicoe in an address in Southampton said saidI I made a prophecy somewhat guardedly some time ago that the submarine campaign would be defeated by August AugustI I did not know at the time that my words would be quoted in every newspaper in the kingdom or perhaps I would not have spoken in such as ¬ sured terms termsToday Today however although ships are still being sunk they are not being destroyed as fast as we are building them while German submarines are living sunk faster than the Germans are building them themThat That is what I meant when I said the submarine campaign would be defeated defeatedThis This assured statement was supported yesterday by Sir Eric Geddes First Lord of the Admiralty who in an address at the opening of an official exhibition of photographers depicting the work of the Itritish navy included this declaration declarationThe The submarines are now controlled controlledFewer Fewer are operating now than for some time past The depth charge has changed the hunters into the hunted None of these high authorities it will be ob ¬ served nretcnds that the sea has been cleared of submarines that the underwater boats have been conquered to use a word frequently misapplied to the results attained in defence of shipping against them or that they do not still constitute a weapon to be reckoned with They agree how ¬ ever that the methods adopted against them have foiled the German navy in its ylan to drive enemy anil neutral shipping from the seas Submarine sinkings have not been eliminated from the hazards of ocean transport but means have been found to reduce them Inlow the level of imminent danger to the cause of the Allies AlliesIn In addition to these statements from IJritish au ¬ thorities we have been assured by ViceAdmiral Sims that the nntiMibmarine campaign was pro ¬ gressing in the most encouraging fashion fashionIt It is apparent that the German authorities arc pressed at home for explanation of the failure of their Ulxiat campaign to win the success which was confidently promised for it when ruthlessness was announced as the policy of the empire now nearly a year and a half ago The necessity of ingenious explanations alone would account for such distortions of the truth as ViccAdmirnl von Ca pelle has been convicted of when lie misrepresented Kdward A Filenes statements regarding American ship production Every sailor and every statesman who read Mr Filenes remarks knew when he said m May 7tlmt it would be in the spring of 1919 licfore we could catch up with the losses that he referred to the total loss not to monthly losses which as Mr Filene has pointed is a different story New York Sun
