Bisbee daily review., 1918-03-21


 tons. while the losses in the same peri cd were l,20O. GOO tons which were the lowest since the intensive submarine war began.
 British Hardest Hit N -E
 Great Britain had lost on the aver ageo f 26O,O0O tons monthly during the last quarter of 1917 and had built 40, poo tons monthly, the first lord an- nounced. British shipping had suffer ed ;he most, he pointed out, but the British had contributed the greatest naval effort of the allies and had sus tained the greatest attack, and should not bemoan their scars. Sir Eric de- clared that the German statement of the allies shipping losses for January was an exaggeration of 113 percent. Since he had shown up these grossly false returns for previous months, he added. the German statement had not been issued and was overdue.
 The first lords figures on the world tonnage were reached after deducting lake craft and considerable amount of small craft. His figures on the ton mage sunk included vessels damaged and ultimately abandoned. The fig ures on losses included those due both to enemy action and marine risks.
 Much Repair Work
 The output of repair work. contin- ued Sir Eric. had increased in Febru- ary. 1918, as compared with August, 1917. by so per cent; ten times more naval craII were docked for repairs in the last quarter of last year than in er. r1,T Trac were dealt with in that period. The men so employed might have produced a half million tons of merchant ship ping if they had been engaged in build ing.
 The three main factors in the build ing problem, said the speaker, were. first. patrols and other craft to de stroy submarines and safeguard ships at sea, second, salvage and repair work; third. the building of new mer- chant ships It would be simply pro viding sheep for the butchers knife to put all the industry's energies into the building of new ships he remarked.
 Sir Eric admitted that the disap pointing results for January and Feb ruary building gave justifiafle cause for anxiety denied the charge that the admiralty was an ungenerous god mother to merchant shipping The naval service he declared, had often subOrdinated its interests to merchant shipping The drop in the curve of merchant tonnage losses was attribut- ed by the speaker mainly to the eff cienoy of the patrol and anti-submar- inc. craft and to the valuable convoy work of other vessels.
 Output Is Increased
 The great effort in construction and repair work had been made, the first lord pointed out, concurrently with the enormous increase in the output of mu- nitions. The output of guns and am munition in 1917 was nearly double that of the previous year and the out put of airplanes was two and one half times as large, while arrangements were in progress during 1917 proyid ing for great increases this year.
 The first lord defended the shipping controller and the admiralty against charges that ship building had been delayed by changes in designs of ships on the stocks. The reasons for the changes were, he said, to secure in- creased speed that submarine attacks might be evaded, to secure greater comfort for the crews, to simplify the designs, to convert ships into oil tank CTS and to provide additional heavy gun mounting.
 Shortage of Material
 The yards had suffered from short. age of material during the summer months of 1917, he admitted, but today the material position was satisfactory and the stocks in the yards were more satisfactory than for years. The need today was for skilled labor He hoped within a few weeks it would be for un- skilled labor only
 The delay in the output for January and February was largely due to re pairs and the conversion of ships into oil tankers, which class the Germans had set themselves to sink. The net addition to labor in the last seven months had been 1S,OO0 men, mostly unskllled-
 After announcing the appointment of Lord Pierrie, the first lord meIi- tioned the Pierrie Yards as putting more than half their output into stand ardized ships and said he hoped before long il would be possible to launch one standard ship every fortnight from these yards.
 Take Men From Army
 He urged all concerned to throw themselves into the production of the 10o,0O0 tons of shipping monthly which was necessary to overtake the present rate of loss
 The head of the admiralty empha- sized the importance of the gradual withdrawal of men from the army foi the ship yards, so that the army should not be Impaired and that men might be replaced by efficient substi tutes. The yards were gradually get. ting rom the army all the skilled ana semi-skilled ship yard men. he said. but there vas still a considerable de ficiency in the requirements of the ship yards which must be filled by newly trained men, by dilution and by grading up.