Arizona republican., 1918-03-07
GERMANS CONTEND
 J BOAT CAMPAIGN
 IS ALL EXPECTED
Republican A. p. Leased Wire1

spondence of the Associated PresS).- The full text of the reply circulated by the German Wolff bureau to the Associated Press interview with Sir Eric Geddes February l on the sub marine war is as follows:
 "The first lord of the English ad- miralty, Sir Eric Geddes, seized the op- portunity, on the anniversary of the unrestricted submarine campaign to discuss again in the usual style the re- suits of this weapon, which is proving so disastrous for England.
 His assertion to his American inter view that the sinkings of merchant ships have been reduced to a level lower than before Germany cast aside all restraint is really rather amusing. Following closely on this portion of his speech, we fortunately find the key to this belief in the confession that he, Geddes, is an optimist,' so far as the submarine warfare is concerned. As in all the utterances of English public men, however, the optimism is followed by an important but Geddes proceeds to say that ships and yet more ships Is still the most important corollary of the war Quite right.
 Claim Sinkings in Excess
 Later on he says destruction of all lied shipping decreases steadily; con- SlTuCLlOn or UlGICUdnL SnlppluB H. creases steadily Although we en- ergetically repudiate the first part of the assertion so far as the proportions of sinking to the decreasing tonnage comes in to the question, we must here add the but which Geddes prudently emits. But the sinkings are still far in excess of the number of ships being built. and that is the main point
 During the course of the interview we hear of a fresh example of the cum ming of the German official statements of submarine results in the factor of exaggeration.' Geddes maintains that the official figures are exaggerated and that the German admiralty always adds a few thousand tons to keep ul the level. They evidently do not yet know in England that the absolute cor rectness of the statements contained ir R report is a point of honor with g German officer and equally so with the admiralty staff. Every German will readily understand that from the way in the English reports are represented We are obliged to explain this, be- cause the first lord of the English ad- miralty has made the impudent asser- ton that the German admiralty falsi. fled it's reports.
 Matter of Opinion
 
 terview it is somewhat difficult to fol low his meaning. He considers thi: curve of exaggeration' which he ha. discovered, as a fairly accurate re flection of the German official mind. That, of course, is a matter of persona opinion, but he proceeds to state tha it is an official confession that th' submarine campaign is regarded as { failure by it's own leaders, The i'm pertinent invention of the first lord i therefor confession of the German official authorities. We are not able t, follow him into these regions of highe logic.
 When Sir Eric further maintain that the German assertion that de creased sinkings are due to the de crease in the number of ships sailinl is incorrect as is proved by the Englisl statistics of ships leaving and arriving we think it would be as well to repl, by giving an Illustration of the abso lutely erroneous impressions purpose ly given by the English method o drawing up shipping statistics. Tn captain of Q neutral merchant steam er received by an English customs of ficer whose tongue had been loosene by grog. in an answer to his questio as to the reason for his being sent b English officials from one port to an other and after a short time alway sent on again, was given the repl that this was done in order that tn number of incoming and outgoing ship might be increased for the statistic!
 ogether-Germans Have Nerve
 The policy of secrecy concerning tn sinking of German submarines by Eng fish forces, Sir Eric asserts is pursue because it has a deleteorious effect o the nerves of the German submarin commanders. We reply to this tha our submarine commanders have sue strong nerves that they have been abl to endure the lies told about them b the English without turning a hai How much more easry will they h abe to endure this English secrecy, tn real reasons for which we can so we understand.
 "A False statement which frequent recurs and one which has been ofte refuted by us is that concerning tn strikes and mutinies' on board ou submarines. In conclusion the firs lord criticizes the military achieve ments of our submarines by saying ths 'timorousness, reluctance and general lowered efficiency is evident So ia as we know, our submarines are doin their work below water, and are there fore beyond the observance of Englis critics It is characteristic of the i'm pertinence and arrogance of an Eng lishman that he should go so far to de ceive public opinion. We will abstai from further comment on the crit cism and will allow our submarines { speak for themselves"