The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1918-06-18

mans, the Petrograd correspondent
Of the London Morning Post says:
| "Under all the circumstances 1t Is
perhaps rather Il marvel that the Ger
mans did not make II glorious cap
ture of nearly every submarine we
had In the Baltic. They captured
none, and they destroyed none. There
Is not a German harbOr In the Bal
tic that our submarines have not en-
tered and charted for their own con-
venience, creeping under mine fields
and through channels so shallow as
hardly to admit Of this hazardous ma
neuver.
1--WE never had more than nine
submarines in the Baltic, and we still
of our boats put down nine enemy
transports in a single day. Russia
knew and openly admitted last sum
mer that 1t was the British subma-
rines which held Petrograd intact.
"When Reval went II was obvious
submarines. still seven In number and
all In fighting trim, had by this time
moved over to Finland, and ultimately
concentrated. with their stores and
workshops ashore, and u huge barge
for floating mechanics In the harb,r
Of Helsingfors.
Sunk to Check Foe.
"With three or four warning par
ties jealously eyeing the British ships
and stores and the Toovaristchi
(cOmrades) airing their new gospel
to the British crews of the subma-
rines on every occasion, and with the
absence of law and order in Helsing-
fors. opportunities for every kind of
trouble were plentiful, and extreme
tact and frmness were needed to
bring things to q successful issue. AS
a result, not single ounce of any
kind Of metal-British property,
some of 1t priceless nowadays here
will ever fall into human hands,
either those Of the Huns or the White
Guards or the Finnish Red Guards,
or Russian TOOvaristch. All seven
submarines, the repair-shop barge,
and every scrap of stores lies safely
in minutely disintegrated form at the
bottom Of the Baltic.
I'm charge at Helsingfors was
Lieut.. Commander Downie. The task
of destroying some f3.O00OOO worth
of British Government property to
save 1t from the Germans who had
already landed at HangO, was his last
sad duty. Plans for the private sale
of enormously valuable stores of all
kinds-metals and composites, elec-
trio fittings, etc.-were cancelled when
1t was discovered that arrangements
existed whereof. all such matters of
priceless value to the enemy were to
ever found. 1t was decided to put
British property to the bottom.
"That fraction of the British navy
which was under Russian orders in
the Baltic consisted of submarines,
which l will call (because these We're
bers) Alpha 2, 10. IL, 20, and q and
Beta 29, 30, 33, and 36. The Alpha
class was fairly large, carrying thir-
ty-odd men. The Beta was an older
type, with about half that number.
Attacks German Armada.
"The biggest thing the Germans
have done in naval way In this war
was the landing on the Islands of
Messed and DagO. Certainly the only
effective opposition they met at sea
came from British vessels, three in
number. OF the four Beta boats one
leaving three available-29, 80, and
33. These three went into the thick
Of things and gave the Germans Al
very unwelcOme surprise. Falling an
adequate intelligence service. the
British submarines took sight for
themselves of the OncOming armada
of dreadnOughts, cruisers, destrOyers,
and transports, and plunged into their
midst. Everything was against our
submarines, but they all came out Of
it alive. and the enemy did not.
captain Sealey, In Beta 80, was of
the true British type, the finished ar
ticls of the British navy. Beta 20
| WIS Wy
Downie, whose record proves him
perfectly true to type; but 1t was his
first command.
"The Germans, Notwithstanding
convenient arrangements made for the
maximum of Immunity. were mis-
trustful Of the British boats, and the
armada moved inside ring Of de-
strOyers and other smaller craft.
Sealey, taking q comprehensive glance
at their dispositions, dived under five
Of the destrOyers nearest to him, the
same tactics being initiated by Com
mander DOwnie and by Beta 33. They
came up inside the protective ring,
to be Immediately assailed from air.
craft and ships with Il rain Of mis-
siles--in particular with so-called
deep-sea bombs.
"Sealey cOnned his Objective-one
of the Observation-Disclosures and fired
two torpedoes at range probably
too short for the run of either tor
| nadc FOR tho 1raad ouuht pScnupt