The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-09-20

wooden hooms support them. It Is the theory that ships can lie behind these booms and that the submarines cannot get through them. Mans internal iu- genuity, however, has solved this prob. lem easily. 4 telescopic steel mast has been constructed which can be extended from the front of the submarine. This mast is equipped with device by which mines containing powerful explosives are swung from the interior of the boat through the water and are placed fin po- sition underneath the underwater bar ricades. The mines are exploded by time mechanism. When the mines are placed in position the submarine swings away and at the appointed moment tho mines explode and destroy the boom. The entrance Is then open to attack.
 The question of how battleships can be protected against submarine is one that has troubled naval experts ever since the first underwater boat was made. Admiral Sir Peter Scott, of the British Navy, is one of those who Is oi the opinion that no real protection can be devised against the underwater at tack.
 Recently he said to me "The day of the dreadnought Is gone. The subma- rine has made 1t archaic. l am satisfied that no fighting ship is safe, day or night, from the attack of the submarine. I believe that the next war will see the end of the building of battleships, After that war there will be nothing but sub. marines and hydro-aeroplanes."
 Sir John H. Biles, the famous English engineer, has suggested that the battle ships of the Future shall be heavily armored under the water line. This, however, would greatly reduce the speed of the boat and would also greatly re. duce their weight carrying. A boat armored heavily enough to withstand torpedo attack could not carry anything but the lightest guns. It is difficult t1 see that their usefulness in war would warrant the expense of building them.
 A score of submarines can be built for the cost of a cruiser The crew of 0 battleship numbers hundreds, while the submarine carries at most twenty men. What does it matter if five or six or . dozen submarines are destroyed in sink ing single ship. The tally of men and money is still far in favor of the under water killer.
 It Is for this reason that England's great navy may be found to be worse than use less before the war is over. The Ger mans are immensely stronger in the nam- Der of their submarines and torpedo boats. They are stronger, too, in their great airships and aeroplanes.
 predict that this war will see the doom of the battleship After it is over there will be no more dreadnoughts and super dreadnoughts--no floating for tresses with guns that can shoot twenty four miles. The mastery of the seas will be fought for between man-made steel sharks tearing each other apart under the waves; man-made vultures of the air bat tling with each other above the waves and striving to cripple the submarines. On the surface of the seas there will only be the hydro-aeroplanes-th that are as much of the air as the aeroplahe, and which only use the sea, like the gulls, in which to dip their feet. If anything else is needed the internal agencies of man can be depended upon to find 1t.
 The thing that wins is the thing that is most in harmony with its surroundings. Submarine, aeroplane and hydro-aerop. plane-each of these is part of the ele. ment in which it works.
 The battleship is hybrid. It is neither one thing nor the other. and soft must go.