The Washington herald., 1916-03-26
Have Displacement of 1000
Tons, Can Travel 5000 to
5000 Miles and Will Car
ry E Torpedo Tubes.

have no doubt that the various tricks
and subterfuges used by the British last
spring and summer cost the lives Of
many submarines, besides the one the
Baralong sank, which might still be in
service II the nk-everything-a t-sight
motto of Count Reventlow had been
adopted by all commanders. From the
German point of view, the increasing
pressure of the blockade and the obvious
difficulties OF the entente through lack of
ships Justify anything.
I'VE may assume, then, that another
American life will be lost At once a
clamor will go up here, and among the
war party in the United States, that Will
son must act at once because of his re-
cent warning. What will he do? His
whole career shows that he will do moth
ing until he can ascertain the facts. Was
the ship whose loss drowned an Ameri-
can armed? If so; did she fire on the
submarine, or threaten to do so, or did
she give the submarine captain sufficient
reason to think she was trying to ram
him, or to escape? II she did fire, was
it in self-defense? 1t will be necessary
for the President to secure accurate an
swers to all these questions before he
calls Germany to account.
VIII Have Plausible story.
knowing what we all do of German
diplomacy, we may be certain that a
plausible story will be concocted for
Washington no matter what the circum-
stances may have been, even If tho ship
were not armed. and If she carried guns
the situation will be still more compIi-
Gated. I grant that another Lusitanla
outrage would mean a break, but there
will be nothing of that sort again. No
submarine commander will fire unless he
has some excuse, fiimsy enough perhaps
And that excuse will keep America from
forcing the rupture she desires with all
her soul to avoid. The whole matter was
summed up by the foreign minister Of
my country when some of our people
were drowned. There are only two ways
OF dealing with this matter he said.
Either forbid, in the name OF humanity
a submarine to sink merchant ship at
sea under any circumstances, or admit
that the conditions of sea warfare have
been changed by the submarine as they
have been on land by the big gun, and
that hereafter civilian life at sea can no
more be held sacred than the lives Of
women and children; neutral or beIlig-
erent, in a town fifteen miles behind the
battle fronts which are bombarded by
hOWltzers.' believe -- was right, and
that your high-minded leader, by trying
to compromise between the two views in
his anxiety to be scrupulously neutral,
has put himself in a position where he
can be handled till the end of the story
by Won JagOw and BernstorT, If those
gentlemen are reasonably clever no mat
ter how many Americans die in bellig-
erent ships"
Germany's super-subm rines. in the
opinion of many naval men in London,
are intended for use against JelIcoe's
dreadnoughts as well as helpless tramp
steamers. In this connection, the most
interesting naval theory produced by the
war is being discussed in London. Some
authorities of great weight believe that,
while the high seas fleet will never force
a general battle by trying to break out
into the open ocean, II will challenge
Jellicoe by proceeding two-thirds of the
way across the North sea, to the Dogger
bank. If it does, II is unlikely that the
challenge will be accepted, and the Ger
mans will be able to convince their own
people and perhaps the neutrals that the
British fleet is afraid to meet theirs in
Britain's own waters.
Dogger Bank Near England.
The mine sweeper Arabs was sunk by
German destrOyers on the Dogger bank,
and there are certain reasons why this
body of water is not always occupied by
warships which the British do not de-
sire to lose. The bank is rough tri-
angle whose sides are seventy-five miles
long, and the depth of this large ex-
panse of sea is nowhere more than sixty
feet. and in some places it is only forty
Assuming that the bases of the Ger
man and British grand fleets are equi-
distant from the Dogger bank. the bank
is nevertheless near the British coast,
and is undeniably British rather than
German water.
The theory is that the Germans will
manage to prepare mine fields on the
DOgger bank, a simple matter in such
shallow water. and will supplement the
mines by concentrating their whole force
of super-submarines at certain spots.
Then, with blowing of trumpets and to
the wonder of the world, the whole Ger
man navy will come out and sail across
the North Sea, bOmbarding the English
coast and causing more "lovellness' than
the German Ocean" ever knew before.
The bOmbardment. carried out for its
moral effect, would be ntrusted to fast
battle cruisers, which would scurry back
to the DOgger bank where the main fleet
awaited it, and the whole idea would be
to force JelliCOe into action in British
waters it is true, but under conditions
Where mine fields and submarines would
give Germany a fighting chance for the
empire of the sea. 1t would be empire of
the sea. and not freedom Of the sea, if
Germany won.
1t might seem to the neutral that
Britain ought to take up the gage. IL it
is thrown down, and perhaps she will.
But the balance of informed opinion is
that she will not. Arthur Pollen, dis
cussing this PLAN which he thinks prob
able, wrote: at is precisely this form
of battle which the British commander
in-chief will most certainly decline. So
long as the German fleet is, as a fleet.
powerless to question our use of the
high seas. its destruction at any risk is
unnecessary. And bearing in mind again
that Germany's objective, in all this sea
activity, is at least as clearly the de-
struction of her enemy.s- moral stability
as the destruction of his military power,
the public must be prepared to hear a
German boast that the North Sea has
been entered, the British fleet challenged
and the challenge declined
Animal Dentistry Latest.