St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1918-06-01
THE TURN or THE TIDE

For three years OF more, the tide of
German U-boat piracy has been set
ting steadily against the shipping of
the Allies. During that stretch OF
time nearly r. oO, 900 IONS in shipping
and nearly $4,000 lives have been
chaIked up in blood-red figures to
swell the list of German atrocities.
But we have reached the turn Of
! the tide. BY the time these words are
| read, the increasing toll which is be-
ing taken of German submarines and
the decreasing toll Of destroyed allied
ships will have brought us to the
point where we r putting ships
afloat faster than the submarine is
sinking them.
The Prussian is highly efficient, and
never more so than when he sets out
to lie; and German officialdom is ly-
ing to the German people about the
submarine situation. 1t is magnifying
the allied shipping losses in an in
creasing ratio, and it is minimizing
its own losses of submarines in equal
measure.
Vice-Admiral Sims recently referred
to the fact that the submarine cam
paign reached its highest point in
April of last year, and that it has
been steadily declining ever since;
SO that in December of last year loss
es were 386,000 tons, and in April had
declined. still further to 269, 900. The
German authorities, however, have
more than doubled these figures in the
lists sent out to the German people.
Thus, Germany claimed for December.
100000 tons sunk as against actual
losses of $4,000 tons; in January, the
claim was $4,000 tons-the actual
loss was 302, 900 tons; in February she
claimed $4,000 tonns-the true figure
is $4,000 tons; in March, she claimed
$4,000 tons as against 358,000 tons;
and in April, when 269, 900 tons was
sunk. the German people, their pre-
cious collection of allies and any n
else who believes that Germany is ca
pable of speaking the truth, were Civ
en- to believe that 100000 tons were
sunk.
It is gratifying to compare the April
loss for this year of 268,000 tons with
the April loss of last year, which was
the first year of unrestricted subma-
rine warfare, when the submarines
sunk a total of $1,000 tons.
The French Minister OF Marine,
Georges Leagues. draws attention to
the fact that, if the total of allied
shipping destroyed in the first four
months Of this year. as given above,
were to be maintained throughout the
year, the years total losses would be
about 100000 tons; and he notes
that this is less than the estimated
amount of tonnage which our Ship
ping Board expects to build in the
same time. So we see that, even in
the unlikely event Of the Germans be-
ing able to maintain their present rate
OF sinking, the losses win be more
than offset by the American effort.
Consequently, since Great Britain,
France and Japan viii launch this
year between them about 1000, 900
tons, and the chartered Japanese and
Norwegian ships and the reqdigitioned
Dutch vessels amount to over $1,000
900 tons, there viii be a total gain
for the allied cause, of over 5000, 900
tons of shipping. It is probable,
however, that the destruction of Ger
man U-boats will proceed at an &c
celebrating rate for three easons
First, the convoy system, which is all
the time being perfected in its tactics,
is becoming increasingly efficient; sec
ond, during the year there will be an
enormous addition to the anti-U-boat
fleets due to the completion of the de-
stroyer and chaser programs, both of
Great Britain and ourselves; and
thirdly, because strongly offensive
operations, of which the recent raids
against Z~eebrugge and ostend, are a
fair test, will be prosecuted through
out the year-Scientific American.