The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1917-09-25
MAKE 1T PUBLIC, Mr..
PRESIDENT,

The British censors permitted the
sending of a dispatch from London
reporting upon the authority of a
Norwegian newspaper that IAN
American armed steamship probably
sank German submarine in a spir-
tied fight southeast of the Shetland
Islands"
Why should the British people and
the American people have to rely
upon a Norwegian newspaper for
that kind of news? Why cannot they
have the facts at frst-hand from
their own governments?
When a submarine Is sunk 1t Is
sunk. We cannot see what military
advantage is gained by suppressing
all official information.
Almost every day letters are re-
ceived in the United States, which
have passed the eensors. giving &C
counts OF spirited engagements be-
tween American warships and Ger
man submarines or between mer-
chant ships and submarines. The
writer's are men wearing the uniform
of the United States navy and they
are not engaged in betraying mill
tary secrets to the enemy. On the
contrary, they are encouraging their
relatives and friends at home with
first hand reports of the splendid
service that American ships are do
ing in beating down the submarine
menace. Similar letters are constant
ly reaching England. and the infor-
nation they contain is passed from
person to person,
1t is an open secret that the United
States and Great Britain are de-
stroying more German submarines
than they ever destroyed before;
yet the lips Of both governments are
sealed. Each week we have the
more or less misleading reports Of
the number of merchant ships sunk,
and once the British government be-
came sufficiently loquacious to de-
scribe the sinking of certain German
submarines somewhere in the At
Iantic, but the glorious story Of the
continuing battle against the u
boats remains untold.
This policy of secrecy was adopted
originally by the British government
in the belief that If the Germans
were kept in ignorance of the fate
of their submarines which failed to
return, the element of mystery would
add powerfully to the decentralization
of the U-boat crews. After three
years of experience in U-boat war
fare, that theory may be dismissed.
The Germans are sending out more
submarines than ever, and if the
crews are more cautious in their
methods of warfare 1t is not be-
cause they are mystified about the
boats that never came back. They
too have learned by experience to
take no needless risks.
There is no more reason for con-
cealing the sinking of a U-boat than
for coneealing the sinking of any
other German warship. When q sub
marine fails to return to its base
after a certain length of time, the
German government knows that 1t
has been lost. The people of Great
Britain and the United States ought
to know it too. There is no military
in suppressing victories
that will inspire public opinion and
give the people new courage for the
sacrifices that they must make.
The mandarins of the admiralties
are wrong on this question. and the
President would rsRder a highly val
liable public service if he would use
his influence and power to give
Americans and British alike the full
record of the wonderful work OF the
two navies in their warfare against
the German submarines.