The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1917-07-23
DEFENlFs:''11I!QRY
Of ATTAC;6il'*'$'
SUBMARINES
FiJIiII ;bsS s+-- HSl3 dss%
Letter of Secretary Daniels
Made Public
SHIP NAMES NOT GIVEN
SHIP NAMES NOT GIVEN
Head Of Navy Department Insists
Dispatches Told of Attempted
destruction by U-Boats.

washington, July 20 oSNiStoiy
Daniels is letter sent to the Senate
and made public yesterday explains
at length the information on which
he bases his statement of July 3 re-
garding submarine attacks on the
American expeditionary force, and
reveals that inconclusive reports of
the encounter had reached the
navy department five days before
statement was issued
The secretary wrote in reply to
Senator Tillman, chairman of the ma
val committee, who sent letter OF
inquiry after a resolution had been
introduced in Congress requesting
that the department submit the text
OF Rear-Admiral Gleaves's dispatch
on the subject. Several senators
have charged during debate that the
secretary's statement was grossly
exaggerated paraphrase Of the Off
cial report prepared by the public
information committee. The resolu-
tion of inquiry, however, was not
passed.
In his letter Mr. Daniels defends
the statement and assures the naval
committee that the text of the
Gleaves dispatch is subject to its
inspection, although it obviously can
not be made public because of the
names of vessels and other military
information it contains.
Late in the afternoon of July g."
wrote the secretary, 'the welcome
news came that the last ship OF the
conveys and transports carrying the
first American soldiers and marines
to fight in France had reached its
destination in safety without accident
or injury to men or ships. The navy
department had known for five days
prior to their arrival that two at
tacks by submarines had been made
and you can well understand the pain
full anxiety lest torpedoes should
have caused the loss of some of the
brave men who we're carrying out this
hazardous enterprise. You may
imagine, therefore. the unspeakable
relief to men which the news an
nouncing the arrival of the last ship
brought. This relief was, of course,
shared by all others in the depart
ment, who had been apprehensive
every minute since June 2S, when
Admiral Gleaves in a brief cable had
reported that Submarines had made
attacks upon two divisions of the
transports
''As soon as the news was com
municated by an officer of the depart
ment, | hastened to the war depart.
ment to apprise the secretary of war
of the fact, for | knew he had felt
the deepest solicitude as he, too, was
informed of the attacks. II was i'm no
formal manner, assure you. that the
good news was given to Secretary Ba
ker, and we shook hands in exulta.
tion over the safety of our sailors and
soldiers and the accomplishment of
the first stage of giving present mill
tary aid to the allies.
'At once a statement was prepared
and given out that evening, which
knew would intensely crafty al
Americans. The message of Rear
Admiral Gleaves announcing the at
tacks of course had not been given tC
the public and consequently 1t hat
been spared anxiety The statemen
which gave to the public conveyed
the feeling of all who had been wait
ing and hoping for the reassurinl
telegram The facts were stated
not in the very words of the Gleave!
telegram, for II is the immemoria
policy of the department in time o
war not to employ the language of {
message coming in code. Otherwis,
Il would be easy for the enemy {,
learn the cipher. Moreover, the mes
sage of the rear.admiral containe,
the names of the ships, which 70
military reasons are never given ou
during a war.
"The important part of the state
ment given to the public was that al
our soldiers and marines and ship
had been conveyed TO France in safe
ty, Two OF the groups arrived with
out being attacke dand two were VI
successfully attacked. II the term
battle and attacked in force ar
open to criticism the fact still RI
mains that the rejoicing was wa
ranted' II the torpedoes, in either q
the attacks, had sunk America
ships the criticism made would nc
nave concerned itself with the dl
ference between what might hay
been called battle or an 'encoun
err or brush
The cablegram from the rear.at
miral' which have not been given I
the public for reasons stated abov
are OF course, subject to the inspe
ton OF the naval affairs committee