The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-04-17
SAYS
 ANY KIND OF SHIPS
 WILL BE WELCOME
Continued from Page one)

CTS may visit your coast, dump their cargo and return But the damage they do will not prove extensive, as each boat only carries about 30 mines. These mine layers have dropped their mines everywhere about our coast and if I had the exact figures at hand of the number we have swept up and de stroyed you would be astonshed."
 Tt cannot be denied that naval strategy has undergone vast change as the re- suit of the illegal use by Germany of submarines. Of coutse, it is also unce- offensive-defensive, since our only &C., changed naval warfare. But the legiti- mate change is not so great, offensive policy for one which may be called an offensive defensive, since our only ac tive enemy is the submarine engaged in piracy and murder.
 We must give our mercantile fleet measure of protection which would not be dreamed of if the Germans merely used their U-boats for legitimate naval war fare and so many of our smaller war ships must be used for the purpose that the tip and run raid becomes a possi- bilty while our own blockading efforts suffer.
 This brings us back to the importance of the small craft for protection of the mercantile marine. But they cannot end the submarine menace by merely running the U-boats beneath the water. We want to end the evil by destroying the boats and we mean to do it. The solution of this problem offers plenty of scope for the inventive genius of both naVieS.
 'Seebrugge forms another of our prob lens. It is difficult to deal with now, owing to German occupation and fortifi- cation of the Belgian coast. No naval officer, even before this war, ever be- lieved that it was the business of capi- tai ship to stand up against a land fort, as land guns always have greater facili- ties for finding the range than a gun mounted on a ship.
 The fortified Belgian coast is fact which we have to face, and the destroy CTS maintained there have made our work of guarding the Straits of Dover more diff ficult. The Germans in their tip and run raids, during which they have committed additional illegality and the inhumanity of bombarding open towns, have the great advantage of choosing the time of attack and when as many IS 30 destroyers can attack patrol line you may gain some idea of the number of vessels we need on guard constantly to stop every raid We have met them more than once at night, but it is difficult to ensure that the meeting shall not find, us in considerable
 nferiority owing to the dispersion neces- sary to watching force.
 Tn conclusion, I cannot do better than quote from your great author, Captain Mahan, in his volume, The Interest of America in Sea Power, Present and Flu ture.' He wrote:
 ITO Great Britain and the United States, if they rightly estimate the part they may play in the great drama of hu- man progress, is entrusted a martlme in- terest in the broadest sense of the word which demands as one of the conditions of it's exercise and it's it's safety the or gan!za ton of a force adequate to con trol the general course of events; to maintain, if the necessity arise, not arbi- trarily but as those in whom interest and power alike justify the claim to do so, the laws that shall regulate maritime war fare.