The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-06-27

hope for the future of this land. th
 new spirit of cooperation, of subordina tion of prejudices even to the comrnof veal If it continues there will be me
 a hard, difficult, and highly controVersia problem that will be settled as soon q. this war is over. Since 1916 we increase, the tillage in this country-although hun
 dreds of thousands of the best labor ha. left the land-by four million acres ii
 the United Kingdom. We have increase our output of shipping, not so much a! I should like, but we more than double the output of 1916 This year I hope WI 1 shall treble if not quadruple it. Mha
 did we do next?
 Most important of all were the de l vices and the methods for fighting tho
 submarine itself Here you would like t, know what has been accomplished 1 (Cheers) The navy. (Cheers) Give then ianother, they deserve it all. (The audi
 ence responded with another, round of ringing cheers) It is to me, lookin back upon it now, incredible, knowin. our fears. our legitimate apprehension. 1 a year ago, the difficulties when you hac 1 these pests in the hidden depths of tn l trackless seas-it is to me incredible how l with skill with ingenuity, with resource l above all, with invincible valour, the 1 sailors of the navy and of the mercan. i difficulties. What was the task in iron
 of them? They had first of all to pre-.
 tect our ships, the shipping Of our allies they had then to make difficult the ne tfarious work of the submarine by harry lng and nestering and hunting and chas ling and pursuing it relentlessly night and Iday. in fine weather and foul, cIeaI weather, hay and dark weather, storm
 and shine through the hurricane as wei.
 C-hr IpN O q
 until at last, thank God, they conquered l this pest (cheers), they worried their nests (cheers), and they blocked two Of | them-Zeebrugge and Ostend. Cheers I These are thrilling deeds that give new l heart to a people. not merely for the
 hour but, when they come to be reae l by our children. and our childrens chll- dren, for ages to come. (Cheers) They enrich our history. they enrich the char
 acter of our people, they fertilize tn, manhood of the land-deeds of darine and heroism like that. (Cheers)
 GERMANY'S BLUNDERS
 l "What has been achieved? 1 will tell The enemy did not discover ;.t once the power of the submarine. We are apt to credit him with too much ] intelligence Glaughter) we oYerrate !! him. we think that the German is al 1 ways on the spot-he is not. dauGh- ] ter.) could give you record or ] his blunders that would take me from now until tomorrow morning. daugn- 1 ter.) He did not discover the power I of the submarine for some time As soon as he did he turned the whole of his appliances and his available la Dor to building and building and build : ing larger and more powerful subma . rines, and unfortunately this govern ment came into the harvest of that resolve and we were the reapers. Slaughter and cheers.) Well, I ought not to say that. We simply employ ed the reapers, the reapers are there along
 our sea coasts. they are the men who
 are welding the scythe and the sickle,
 and very efficiently have they done
 it. Now let me give you a report
 which I have just had from the ad-
 miralty. not in my own words, but ir
 their words:
 "'As regards the sinking of enemy
 submarines, this is going on satisfac-
 torily (cheersl-I like this official
 language Qaughter)-'and since the
 fir-. of the year the naval staff are confident that the allied navies have sunk more enemy submarines than have been built (Cheers.O We have, therefore, reached the position that