Evening star., 1921-05-04
> BY JOsEPHUS DANIELS.
Former Secretary OF the Navy.
ARTICLE 20.


81 ARTICLE 20.
One OF the liveliest days Of the Who'll.
war for the Navy Department was Mon
= day, June 3, 1918. 1t will be many
year before forget it.
Sunday a U-boat had suddenly bobbeo
up about forty or fifty miles off the New
Jersey coast and sunk four schooners.
That was hard hitting for wal
Alphabetically 5000 miles away.
1t certainly stirred things up In oul
corner of Washington. When received
the newspaper correspondents that Mon
day morning / faced a fire of questions
as rapid as that of any machine gun II
France.
what is the Navy doing to protect
our shipping?'
why did it it let the submarine sink
those vesselS?"
won't you recall our destroyers IRON
Europe?"
Gets 5000 Calls.
While l did my best with the eager
inQuiSitive and persistent gentlemen ol
the press, kilograms were pouring into
the department by the hundred. and the
telephones were ringing without ceSsa-
tion. In twenty-four hours 5000 tele-
grams, radio messages, phone calls and
other inquiries were handled by the
Navy. The halls and offices of the de-
partment were thronged with anxious
people, shippers and ship owners. and
friends and relatives of captains and
crews. And everybody wanted informa :
tion.
There was general alarm along the
coast, from Cape Cod to Cape Sable.
IF one U-boat was over here. two might
be, or three, or four. There was no
saying where the enemy would strike
next. Such was the feeling. and, OF
course, we heard from it.
The last of the four questions
which I have given as coming from
the newspaper correspondents came
from all over the country. but espe-
Cially from the coast:
Wont you recall our destroyers
5rom Europe?"
Nor was it always phrased so po-
1tely or as diffidently as this. Some
times it passed from the interroga- :
tive to the imperative and became an
emphatic demand.
No Recall of Destroyers.
Obviously it was quite impossible
for the Navy Department to satisfy
all these inquiries or to answer the
very pointed questions of the news
papermen. We could not tell the pub
lie what we were doing. what ships
were being sent out and where. We
might just as well have cabled the
Information to Germany.
Most OF our deStroyers and other
patrol craft were in European waters.
but we had no idea of recalling them.
In the first place. to cover every
point where submarines might appear.
to patrol adequately the waters of
our long coast line and to convoy all
coastwise shipping-which was what
excited individuals were insisting we
should do-wouId have taken not less
than a thousand vessels.
In the second place. nothing would
have suited Germany's purpose better
than to scare US into withdrawing our
forces from the European hunting
mine barrage across the North sea.
We were doing everything possible,
but we realized that we would have
to accept the Likelihood of some small
craft being sunk-possibly few
steamers: but that at all costs we
must keep the line of communi ca ton
clear by which troops and supplies
were carried to the fighting front.
Must Keep Road Open.
Germany had sent her U-boats
across the sea mainly for the purpose
of interrupting the transportation of
troops and supplies. Failing in this,
their long and perilous adventure
would be without military effect.
Our first duty" 1 said to the news
paper men that morning, sis to keep
open the road to France, to protect
troopships and supply vessels. We are
doing all We can to protect all ship
ping and commerce. but that must be
our first thought"
And that policy was so we'll carried
out that not one troopship or trans
port was delayed in sailing a single
day. and the months in which enemy
submarines were operating almost
continuously off our coast were the
very months in which we broke all
records in troop transportation.
Deutsehland Comes Back.
There were six U-boats which made