Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-03-06
U.S.. AND ALLIES
SINK U-BOATS AS
RAPIDLY ASBUILT
Loss TO Worlds Tonnage
Drops Almost Half
in Year

/
Americans have been sinking sub
marines as fast as they were built"
declared Sir Eric Geddes, First Lord
of the Admiralty, in the House of
Commons.
THE loss to British shipping for
the five months ending with Feb
ruary," said Sir Eric, was 10 per
cent. less than during the CORES
pondins months of the year previous,
although during four months of the
latter period unrestricted submarine
| war had not been proclaimed by the
enemy
~ have stated" the first lord
continued, "that the curve of losses
of merchant shipping continues
downward. The statement is as true
! to-day as when previously made.
1t is true there have been bad
weeks and bad months, February
was, in comparison with recent
! standards, a bad month. But on the
other hand January was a good one.
"As TO the curve of the loss in the
worlds tonnage, only two months of
! the current quarter have elapsed,
| but assuming the March loss to be
! as high as that of February, I find
| that the falling curve continues"
/ The trend of the figures of loss
! of shipping by enemy action was
! steadily improving, Sir Eric stated.
The loss to the worlds tonnage dur
| ing February was little more than
/ half the loss during February of last
year, he said.
Drop in Ship Production
Regarding the rate of ship pro-
duction, Sir Eric said that instead
of rise there had been a serious
drop.
"Why?" the first lord asked. 1.-THE
main fact is that owing to labor
unrest and strike difficulties the men
| in the yards are not working as if
! the life of the country depended on
! their eXertions. The employers are
perhaps not doing all they could
! The long strain of the war must
have an effect upon their nerves as
upon every one else. The serious
unrest which existed in January will
have an effect on completions in
| later months. 1 am driven to the
conclusion that even at this late
date the situation is not fully real
iZed.
"Our allies arc making every ef-
| fort to increase their production of
ships, but despite glowing reports in
the American press and great as the
effort of that country doubtless is,
! there is no doubt u considerable
time must clapsc before the de-
sired output is obtained.
Il believe the individual piece
worker on ships works as hard now
as he did last year when he is ac-
! tually at work." Sir Eric continued,
| but he seems reader to take holi-
| days and we cannot afford holidays.
If improvement is not speedily made
the point where production balances
losses will be postponed to a dan
| gerous extent"
The first lord said he was seriously
concerned at the increasing number
of vessels lost at night. 1t appeared
the enemy was assisted in this mat
ter by negligence on the part of ship
owners who displayed lights instead
of darkening their vessels.
Heavy Loss in Mediterranean
In the waters around the British
Isles, which had been the enemy's
chief field for submarine operations,
the greatest success against the u
boats had been obtained so far, lat
terly with the help of American
naval forces. said Sir Eric On the
other hand, conditions in the Medit-
crranean had been more difficult.
Losses there accounted for some 80
per cent. of merchant ships sunk.
The resources for combating the
submarines in those waters were
less adequate and the successes OBJ
tanned less satisfactory.
1t became increasingly evident.
the first lord went on, that as the
resources for combating the subma-
rines improved it would be possible
TO turn attention more to the Medi-
terranean. He continued: 81 re-
Gently went to Rome for a meeting
of the Allied naval committee and
also inspected naval establishments
IN the Mediterranean, including
those of the Greek navy. British
naval officers are assisting the
| Greeks in reorganization of their
navy, which already is cooperating
in the Mediterranean and rendering
valuable service"
1t was perhaps natural, Sir Eric
continued that cooperation between
Great Britain and the United States
should be extremely close. On be-
half of himself and his colleagues
he wished publicly to pay tribute to
the whole-hearted and generous de-
votion to prosecution of the war
which governed the action of every
representative of the United States
navy with which they came into con-
tact. The personnel of all ranks, he
said, had the respect and esteem
of the officers of the British navy.
No Lack of Men or Material
Concerning shipbuilding, he said
there was no lack of materials at
present and that there were more
men in the yards, but the output
reached only $4,000 tons in January,
although it should have been much
more. 1t was true the weather was
exceptionally bad and also that Jan
uary, owing to the holidays, always
was a bad month for the output of
ships. One week or one month
could not be taken by itself. He
expressed the opinion that Febru-
airy would be shown to have made
nearly twice as good a record as
January, although only about two
thirds of what the same yards had
done previously with fewer men.
Submarines were being destroyed
in increasing numbers, he contin-
ued, and as the methods employed
against them were developed the
numbers would be enlarged still
further. There was n growing re-
luctance on the part of German
crews to put to sea. The chances
that n submarine would return from
n voyage in the waters around Eng
land were one in four or one i'm five.