Norwich bulletin., 1917-07-23
SECRETARY OF NAVY
 EXPLAINS TO SENATE
Basis of Statement of Submarine At
 tacks on American Transports.

Washington, July p. Secretary Daniels, in a letter sent to the senate and made public today, explains at length the information on which he
 based his statement of July regard ing submarine attacks on the Amer ican expeditionary force and reveals that inconclusive reports of the en counter had reached the navy de- partment five days before the state ment was issued.
 The secretary wrote in reply to Sem
 ator Tillman, chairman of the naval
 committee, who sent a letter of in quiry after a resolution had been in troduced in congress requesting that
 the department sumbit the text of
 Rear Admiral Gleaves' despatch. on the subject Several senaLrs have
 charged during debate that the secre- tary's report was grossly exaggerat- ed paraphrase of the report prepar-
 ed by the public information com mittee. The resolution, however, was
 not passed. In his, letter MT Daniels defends the statement and assures the
 naval committee that the text of the Gleaves' despatch is subject to its in- spection, although it obviously cannot be made public because of the names of vessels and other military inforHa =
 tion it contains.
 Late in the afternoon of July 3rd." 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 it's destin- etion in safety, without accident or injury to men CT ships The navy de- partment had known for five days prior to their arrival that two attacks by submarines had been made, and you can we'll understand the painful anxiety lest torpedoes should have caused the loss of some of the brave men who were carrying out this haz- ardous enterprise. You may ina zine, therefore, the unspeakable relief to me which the news announcing the ar rival of the last ship brought. This relief, was, of course. shared by all others in the department who had been apprehensive every minute since June 2sth, when Admiral Gleaves in a brief cable had reported that sub- marines had made attacks upon two divisions of the transports.
 "As soon as the news was commu nicate by officer of the depart ment, I hastened to the war depart ment, to apprise the secretary of war of the fact, for I knew he had felt the deepest solicitude as he, too, was informed of the attacks. It was in no formal manner, I assure you, that the good news was given to Secretary Baker 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 mili- tary aid to the allies.
 At once a statement was prepared and given out that evening" which knew would intensely gTatify all Americans. The message of Rear Ad- mira1 G1eaves, announcing the attacks, of course, had not been given to the public. and consequently it had been spared anxiety. The statement which. gave to the public conveyed the feeling of all who had been waiting and hoping for the reassuring tele- gram. The facts were stated not in the very words of the Gleaves' cable gram, for it is the imm emorial policy of the department in time of war not to employ the language Of a message coming in code. Otherwise it would be easy for the enemy to learn the cipher Moreover, the message of the rear admiral contained the names of the ships, which for military reasons are never given out during a war.
 aThe important part of the state ment given to the public was that all our soldiers and marines and ships had been conveyed to France in safety Two of the groups arrived without be- ing attacked and two were unsuccess- fully attacked. If the terms battle and attacked in force are open to criticism, the fact still remains that the rejoicing was warranted. If the torpedoes, in either of the attacks. had sunk American ships, the criticism made would not have concerned itself with the difference between what might