The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-24
ENGLAND ID TAKE STEPS TOROUNDUP
 GERMAN CRUISERS
Seventy Warships Are Seek ing Destroyers of English COmmerce-39 Ships
 Have Been Sunk

London, October 23.-f7 D. m.)-The admiralty tonight issued statement outlining steps that are being taken to round up the eight or nine German cruisers at large in the Atlantic, Pa cific and Indian oceans. These cruisers include the Emden. which has sunk or captured 20 British vessels to date in the Indian ocean, and the Karlsruhe which has taken 13 British ships in the Atlantic. The statement says:
 Searching for these vessels and working in concert under various com manders in chief are upward of 70 Brit ish, Australian, Japanese, French and Russian cruisers. not including auxil- iary cruisers. Among these are a mum Der of the fastest cruisers.
 "The vast expanses of seas and oceans and thousands of islands offer almost infinite choice of movement to the enemy's ships. Despite every ef- fort 10 cut off their coal supply it has been maintained. In the face of in creasing difficulty the discovery and destruction of these vessels is mat ter of time, patience and good luck
 Searching Cruisers Augmented
 Our commanders so far have been occupied in a serious and important convoy duty but this work has les- sened and the number of searching cruisers is being augmented. Meanwhile merchant ships must observe the ad : miralty instructions which it is ob : viously impossible to specify and use all precautions which have been sug- gested On routes where these instruc- tions have been followed they have SD far proved very effective. On the other hand, where they have been disregard ed captures have been made. The same vastness of the sea which has so far enabled the German cruisers to avoid capture will protect trade.
 s'The only alternative to the meth ods now adopted would be the marshaling of merchantmen in regular conveys at stated intervals. So far it has not been thought necessary to hamper trade by enforcing such d system.
 "The percentage of loss is much less than was reclSoned on before the war. Out Of 4000 British ships angaged in the foreign trade only 39 have been sunk by the enemy, or less than ] per cent in all, besides seven vessels now overdue in Atlantic ports.
 The rate of insurance for cargoes which at the outbreak of war was fixed at 5 guineas per cent has been reduced to guineas per cent.
 Undertake Foreign Voyages
 Between 5000 and 5000 foreign voy- ages have been undertaken to and from United Kingdom ports, less than five per thousand of which have been in terfered; and of these losses a large number have been caused by merchane vessels taking everything for granted and proceeding without precautions. as if there was no war.
 "On the other hand German oversea trade has virtually ceased to exist. Nearly all their fast ships, which could have been used as auxiliary cruisers, were penned into neutral har- bors or took refuge in their own. Among the comparatively few German ships which have put to sea 1S3 have been captured or nearly four times the humber of those lost by the very large British mercantile marine.
 'In these circumstances there is no occasion for anxiety and no excuse for complaint. The more fully the facts concerning our oversea trade and it's protection by the royal navy can be disclosed and the more attentively they are studied the greater will be the confidence and satisfaction with which the situation can be viewed