New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-08-27
SELBORNE HINTS
AT CONSUMPTION
British Minister Says Rus
sian Reverses Have Put
Burden on Allies.
STATES SUBMARINE
MENACE is IN HAND
Farmers May Receive Guarantee
for Wheat, Says Agri-
cultural Secretary.

London, Aug. 28.-Something in the
nature Of conscripton, though the term
was not employed was foreshadowed by
the Earl of Selborne, president of the
Board of Agriculture, in an address
this afternoon to deputation OF agrl-
cultural land owners who visited him IN
London.
"Many more men have got to join
the army, whether voluntarily or com
pulsorily," said the earl. The agrl-
cultural laborer has done his part
nobly in this war, but the response has
been very unequal over the country,
and | forecast that during the next
year men will be taken from districts
and farms whence hitherto they have
not gone.
what shall aim at-and Earl
Kitchener has been very sympathetic
is to leave the farmer his foreman,
stockman, carriers and shepherds, but
the rest of the work will have TO be
done BY women or men not hitherto
engaged In agriculture"
Lord Selborne emphasized the fact
that Russias reverses had imposed
greater strain on her allies.
awe have greater burden on our
shoulders at the present moment than
six months ago." he said. The tinan-
cal strain is going to be very great,
and the situation is going to demand
from every class greater and greater
! sacrifices"
The speaker stated that the navy had
/ the submarine menace well in hand.
In the light Of the country's expert
ences with submarines. however, the
| agricultural and economic policy of
| Great Britain. including the broad
/ questions Of food production, would
! have to be revised. he continued. The
committee which he had appointed to
deal with increasing the food supply
| had recommended that farmers should
! be guaranteed as shillings t$1125) a
quarter for wheat. beginning with the
| harvest of 1916 and continuing until
! 1920.
/ In view Of circumstances connected
with the war. however, Lord Selborne
added, the government had decided that
| it would not incur the additional finan-
cial liability involved in the guarantee
| of arrangements, however made, to sup
ply farmers with labor,
The Earl of Sebornes statement that
! the navy now has the submarine men
ace we'll in hand lends color to recent
unofficial reports that the British have
lately captured very large number of
/ Uboats and that many others have
been sunk. Since the beginning Of the
war the British official reports, how
ever, have accounted for but one Ger
man submarine besides the one the
destruction of which was announced
to-day, although there have been vague
references to submarines being rammed
or sunk by unarmed ships In the British
| Channel, and in one instance a reward
offered by the Admiralty for the sink
! ing of submarine has been paid to a
British merchantmen. A German Off
I cial report, however, subsequently said
that this submarine had safely returned
to her port.
There have been no official intima-
tions as to what method, offensive or
defensive, has been taken by the Brit
ish navy against submarines, although
the Admiralty previously had an
nornced its satisfaction with these
measures.
| Returning Americans have described
I the new British sport of submarine
hunting and have said that great num-
/ bers OF small, high powered and very
speedy motor boats, mounting guns Of
/ small calibre, have constantly secured
| the c, stall waters OF Great Britain for
months. There also have, been repeated
stories of an extensive system Of sub
marine nets in channel waters, and even
of one submarine net that extends en-
/ tirely across the English Channel, with
guard boats at the opening
! 1t is a notable fact that for nearly
year the Franco British naval transport
/ service across the Channel, by means
of which hundreds of thousands Of
/ t oops have been tran; ported, has been
maintained. so far as is known, without
a single troopShip having been sunk by
a submarine in these waters.