The Little River news. (Ashdown, Little River County, Ark.) 1897-current, 1917-05-09
NEW WEAPON TO
FIGHT U-B0ATS
May Route Germans from kiel Canal
New Invention by Edison
and Naval Consulting
Board.

New York, May 5.-That the sub
marine problem has been solved and
that it is not improbable that the
solution may result in the German
navy being routed out of its base in
the Kiel Canal is the intimation Of
w. l.. Saunders. chairman of the naval
consulting board in a statement to-
day
Mr. Saunders in talking to a group
of newspaper men emphasized that in
as much as he was not disclosing de-
tails of the naval boards report tc
the navy department, statements he
made were not Of military information
and would be of military value to
the German government.
For several months about So inven-
tons day have reached the board
and Is committees have examined
them Those not considered worth
while were at once eliminated. Some
were selected and tested at experiment
tai stations along the Atlantic coast.
| A few survived and these are the ones,
Mr.. Saunders said, which will be en-
ployed against the submarine.
Mr.. Saunders said the plan suggest
ed to the government involved the
possibility of land Operations. With
out committing himself definitely on
this point the scheme he indicated
included a mi itary Offensive against
the kiel canal, which would call for
the transportation and land ng o. al
army against this important German
waterway.
The plan submitted to the govern
ment, Mr.. Saunders asserted. was not
based upon theory, sketches or de-
signsf' but upon actual tests (which
have proven encouraging. The use
of electricity is involved Importantly
in the whole idea Of an offensive.
The naval operations would under
the plan be directed toward bottling
up the North sea as effectively as
Great Britain has blocked the English
channels.
Mr. Saunders alluded to the north
gateway of the Moth sea rs Germany
"hornets nest" Or rat hole for
submarines and said the nest must
be blockaded and penetrated and its
U-boat inmates destroyed and German
naval bases also dealt with effectively
The naval consulting board believed
sufficiently in what had teen discOv'
cred and planned he said, to feel JUS
tilted in notifying the people that the
submarine fear might be allayed. The
pro; ;ect now before the government
could be carried out 'within rea-
sonab,e short time, he said.
Mr.. Saunders who has been chair
man of the naval consulting board
about two months supplemented his
announcement by saying that while
the submarine problem cannot be
solved until the U-boats have been
destroyed nevertheless numerous eX-
periments had been made along the
Atlantic coast with highly eneourag-
ing results, which led the board tc
feel confident that successful So
luton had been reached.
ut looks as though the submarine
problem has been solved Mr.. Saun-
dera said, mot only in theory but on
the strength of practical tests on the
Atlantic coast"
Mr.. Saunders added that 800 inyen-
tions for U-boat suppression had teen
submitted for consideration of the
board, and experiments with many OF
them justified, he believed, the asser-
ton that plan lad been found by
which the submarine peril could be
eliminated.