New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-12-15
The Tonnage Problem


First Lord of the Admiralty's latest state
ment in the British House Of Commons
was undoubtedly that in which he dealt
with the replacing Of lost tonnage. 1t is
true that the resources, greatly as they
have been increased, are still insufficient
to meet current demands, that the U-boats
are still doing more damage than 1t IS
possible to repair, and that the menace
is, at best, "held but not yet mastered"
Nevertheless, the prospect is brighter than
il has been for more than a year. Not,
indeed, until the output Of new tonnage
exceeds the amount destroyed will ii be
possible to regard the situation with COM
plete equanimity, but there is now some
reason to hope that before long that con-
dition will be fulfilled.
About six weeks ago the First Lord
spoke reassuringly of the steady decrease
in the losses Of the Allies and the steady
increase in shipbuilding, as well as in
the destruction of German submarines.
In every respect the situation to-day Is
as promising as it was then. "The down.
ward trend Of the mercantile losses, both of
ourselves and of our allies" says Sir
Eric Geddes, continues satisfactorily
The upward curve of merchant shipbuild-
ing has also continued satisfactorily, and
will undoubtedly be maintained. The up
ward curve Of the destruction Of en-
envy submarines has continued equally
satisfactorily, and I have no reason to
doubt that those curves will continue to
improve The general improvement is.
accordingly, progressive.
Il viii be cause of wonder to future his
torians that for the first three years of
the war so slight an effort was made to
meet the obvious menace of submarine
warfare Sir Eric Geddes promises that
the construction of merchant ships this
year will be as great as that of 1913, when
British tonnage launched amounted to
100000 tons That is a splendid achieve
ment, considering the increased demands
on war construction. But the wonder is
that for so long merchant shipbuilding
was neglected in the face of the German
threat In 1915 the output of tonnage
had fallen to 688,OOO; last year to $685.
OOO The government that allowed it to
sink so low under such conditions can
hardly escape censure, for, whatever any
one may have imagined in the early days
Ct the war, the possibilities of an unre-
stricted campaign were surely unmistak-
able after the sinking Of the Lustania
in 1915.
Now, at last, the shipbuilding facilities
of the kingdom have been greatly ex-
tended and will doubtless be extended
much further. The output of British mer-
chant tonnage in the first nine months of
the present year was 120 per cent higher
than in the corresponding period of last
year and considerably greater than the
total output of the year before. Likewise
in the matter Of ship repairing there is
"A remarkable improvement. Thus, Sir
Eric Geddes shows that since last June
there have been only three ships tor
pedoed in home waters the salvage of
N. which has been abandoned There is no
pay Of telling exactly what this implies
nee the Admiralty does not publish list
of ships attacked. II is clear, however.
= that the repairing Of damaged ships is a
most important consideration in keeping
: up the supply Of available tonnage. The
same men and the same materials. as
SIR Eric Geddes pointed out on a for
mer occasion, are required for repair
. ing and for building ships, and il would
+ fnanifestly be folly TO devote resources TO
building a ship which might not be avail.
able for many months when by the same
means IT would be possible to secure an
equal amount Of tonnage in few weeks.
II is, therefore, encouraging TO learn that
/ the percentage Of damaged ships under
repair is so, as compared with q in June.
Plainly, the problem is TO achieve q
just balance in the various enterprises
that contribute TO the maintenance of ton
mage. and, apparently, one of the chief
difficulties at present is TO secure sufri-
Gent labor. The deficiency must be attrib-
uted in part at least, TO a lack Of fore
sight under former administrations; but
however that may be, it has now been
largely made up, as the results show.
Upon the whole, then, the outlook is rea-