The Sentinel=record., 1918-05-14
SUBMARINES DESTROYED
 FASTER THAN BUILT
With Submarines Maintaining the old rate of Destroying Vessels for tlt Past Year the Ships Building by tn Allied Nations Will Show an ln- crease in Tonnage.

Washington, May Realizing
 that America and the allies have
 gained the mastery over the present type of submarine, Germany is now
 said to be planning a new series of U-boat cruisers with which she hopes
 to again assume the advantage in her
 unrestricted underwater warfare. Announcement of the new German | scheme is made by Georges Leygues, the French minister of marine, in an
 interview received here today in an official dispatch from France. No de- tails regarding the new U-boats were given by M. begues but from nfor- nation from other sources 1t appears | that the cruiser submarines will be
 heavily armed and will be designed
 especially to meet the menace of the
 torpedo boat destroyers which have proved SO effective in hunting down
 the smaller submarines now in opera
 ton.
 M. Leygues declared that the allies are ready to meet Germany's new ef- forts and that they will not rest upon
 the fine results obtained" in the past
 'We shall not stop" he said, "until we have cleaned up the sea as ons cleans up trench"
 Just how effective has been the war against the U-boat ia shown by fig ures on destruction of allied shipping given 10 the national committee Of the French chamber of deputies Sat urday by Minister Leygues. They re- veal that sinkings of merchantmen have fallen off to the point where new construction is exceeding the destruc- tion even now tho American yards are in full swing on the building pro- gram mapped out by the shipping board. The monthly average of de- structions this year as given by M. Leygues ts 315,000, compared with more than 500.O00 tons month in 1917 In April of last year the first month of Germany's unrestricted sub 1 marine warfare, the tonnage sunk was S71,000. In April of this year it had dwindled to about 26S,00O tons.
 On the other hand the destruction of submarines is exceeding their con- struction by the enemy and the mar gin Is expected to increase as addi- tional American destroyers which now are being turned out rapidly take their place with the war craft operating in the war zone. The total of allied shipping destroyed in the first four months in 1918 was placed by Min ister Legues at 1,622,34 5tons and even if the submarines are able to main tain this rate, which officials doubt, the years total would be s1methn like 3,700000 tons. or less than the estimated amountof tonnage which the shipping board believes America will produce during the year.
 Adding to American production the output in Great Britain, France and Japan, the allies will gain for the year something like two million tons, not counting the one million or more tons of chartered Japanese and Nor wegian ships and requlsitioned Dutch vessels.
 while encouraging, officials empha- size the fact that these figures do not furnish the margin of safety that is necessary and there will be no re- laxing of building efforts in any of the allied countries or in Amerite England's output thus far this year. has not come up to expectations and the American yards have not turned out the tonnage anticipated because of freight congestion and other causks and renewed efforts are being made
 to make these deficiencies.