The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-05-08
The Under-Seas War.

Which will outlast the other the British
merchant navy or the German submarine
! fieety Germany began her campaign OF
unrestricted submarine warfare on Feb
for the express purpose OF working
such havoc with British merchant ship
| ping that Britain would be brought to
her knees in three or four months. The
ships of her allies and of America and
other neutral countries were also to be
destroyed. Two months have gone. and
their events have been indecisive. There
has been considerable destruction, but
not OF merchantmen only. The attacking
ships have not always been the victors.
Did not Germany make an addition to
her INSTALLATIONS when she set out with
$50 under seas craft to sink mercantile
marine of some 100000 tonsY Nothing
has appeared to support the solitary
guess that she had 500 submersibles. No
estimate of possible speed of construc-
ton allows more than $50 as the num-
Der for which the German government
waited to enable it to break its promise
of May 4, 1916, to the United States.
Last autumn, as the German chancel-
Tor has explained, the project of iDdis-
criminate destruction had to be deferred
for want of a sufficient number of sub
marines. But when February came he
was able to say; "'The number OF our
submarines has been very considerably
increased as compared with last spring,
and thereby a firm basis has been ere
ated for success" The number with
which Germany began the war in August,
1914, is uncertain, but it may be as
sumed not to have exceeded the British
number, which was about seventy. Since
then the rate of construction has been
kept secret even from the German peo-
Pile They have been denied access to
navy yards. But the rate may be APP
proximately estimated. Making some al
lowance for shortage of labor in recent
months, but, taking into account the con-
centration of energy on submarine pro-
duction in all available yards, it is rea-
sonably assumed that over the whole
period of two years and half, from
August /, 1914, to February /, 1917, she
may have built her U.boats at the rate
of twelve per month. In that case, if
she had lost none, she would have had
400 at the time she flung off every re-
striction on their action. But many she
had lost, and many more had been out
worn, so that $50 seems to come fairly
near the probable number at the begin
ming of February last.
Now, however, says the German min
lister of the navy, the launches exceed
the losses. That statement cannot be
accepted without trustworthy figures.
So many submarines are being reported
sunk or captured that the building of
more than enough to fill their places
would be an enormous tax on German
efficiency. Within the last few days we
have heard of the destruction of the sub
marine that torpedoed the Tacoma, the
capture of the U-30 that sank the Ida,
the sinking of another submersibe off
Plymouth, and the netting of two more
under-seas craft at the opposite side of
the English channel It is said at the
British board of trade that forty-one
U-boats were sunk or captured in Feb
ruary. IL is easy, then, to believe that
the destruction of British shipping by
German submarines has been ten per |
cent less in March than it was in Feb |
ruary. There seems to be but little |
doubt as to which way the contest is
going. And perhaps, as Mr.. J. A. Spend
err says in the Westminster Gazette, "if I
it is vital American interest that the 1
submarine should not prevail, we shall
see such an effort as will place the issue
beyond doubt. Boston Herald.