The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1917-11-19
Has The Submarine
Campaign Broken Down

The first impression made by the
British Admirai,y's weekly report O
merchant vessels sunk by mine c.
, submarine, one over 1,600 tons anG
five under, is that il may be too gooC
TO be true; true in The sense thai
the figures prove a collapse of the
German submarine campaign. In the
week ended Oct 2S, fourteen ships
over ana four under l SEQ tons were
sunk. The following week the num-
Der was, respectively. eight and four;
and now. so far as big ships are con-
cerned, The tally is almost in touch
with the vanishing point.
1t viii NOT do to halIoo before we
are Cut Of the woods, and there must
be an uneasy feeling that less than
month ago the submarine menace
could not be made light of, for tthe
British Admiralty Ton Oct. 2D re-
ported seventeen vessels over anC
eight under 1900 tons lost. To what
is the rapid decline in destructive
ness to be attributed? It can hardly
be the fact that the enemy's flotilla
is so reduced in numbers that six
British merchant vessels torpedoeC
in a week, five OF them Of less thar
l 900 tons, represents his maximum
ability 10 strike, that is. say, OIL
paper.
However. it may be true that the
manning OF the enemy's submarines
with electives becomes more and
more difficult; that is, he may have
U-boats enough but not the men tC
operate them. II was six weeks af-
ter the mutiny in the Fleet that the
significant news Of it reached the
outer world. The submarine service
with its dangers and hardships, had
become a dreadful spectre to the
men. Bonds Of discipline burst, and
officers were attacked and thrown oy-
erboard. If the sailors of the High
Sea Fleet are still in a state of rebel
lion and resist being drafted to the
submarines, the facts would be sup
pressed until there was another leak.
1t is to be noted that on Nov. the
German Admiralty said:
with occasional fluctuations,
which are inevitable in connection
with this new method of warfare, the
submarine war goes unswervingly
forward and becomes more effective
every day"
There were fluctuations, it is true
but they had been running against
German success. Of course the rest
of the statement was grotesquely
false. Was it put out for home con-
sumption, to stem swelling tide OF
protest against the declining efiicien-
cy of the submarines? If so, there
was a state of nerves in the camp of
those responsible for ruthless war
fare Two days later Captain Per-
sius, the naval 'critic," sounded a
warning that England could not be
starved into sui LmissiOn by U-boat
methods for some time to come-she
would not feel the pinch Of want for
six months. at any rate. He rebukeG
the grumblerS for expecting too
much. On Nov. 3 Admiral Won Tir-
pitt apparently threw up the sponge.
He said it was q mistake to believe
that the submarine would prove
sufficient protection against Great
Britain, as some effective counter
weapon was bound to be discovered.
Evidently the ruthless school was
losing faith, whatever the cause Of
it's discontinue. The stronger pa
troll of the allied fleets, the havoc
wrought by the depth bomb, the diff
fculty of breaking through conveys
escorting a score of merchantmen,
and last, but net least, the problem
of manning the submarines-all may
have combined to convince the Ger
man Admiralty that the game was
up. But this would not explain
collapse of the campaign, would not
explain last weeks tally dwindling
almost to nothing. Is'a deep game be-
ing played by the willy and ever re-
sourceful German Government? 1t
is conceivable that, submarine fright
fulness being destined to failure,
there will be a resort to audacious
propa ganda to influence public opin-
ion in the United States against a
continuation of the war. Germany
is equal to abandoning the subma-
rine campaign which she cannot win,
and then bidding the American peo-
pie consider that the cause which
brought them into the war no longer
exists, or has disappeared. Why,
then, a further waste cf the resour