Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1921-12-28
WEDNESDAY. DECEMBER 2s. 1921
THE SUBMARINE

The movement initiated and
strongly urged by Great Britain
10 abandon the submarine as q
weapon OF warfare, has raised one
OF the most difficult issues that
the Limitation Of Armament Con
ference has vet faced, and one
upon which it viii be extremely
hard to reconcile the viewpoints
of the various nations.
The English spokesman base
their argument for such step
upon the difficulty OF regulating
the use OF the submarine in time
of war and also by the contention
that during the past war 1t was
an absolute failure as a weapon
of offense against battleships and
troop-transports, pointing out the
uninterrupted flow OF British
troops across the English Chan
mel as an example of this failure.
In spite of this. however, the
fact remains that during the war
England was seriously Jeopardiz-
ed by the operations of the Ger
man submarines against her sup
ply ships, and it is probably as
much desire TO escape another
such experience as anything else
that is back of her request for the
abolition of this method OF war
fare.
The war proved beyond any
doubt that the submarine Vas pre-
eminently a destroyer of COM
merce, and while its use as such
is open to much objection and dis
Cussion, the records show that the
German submarines sunk approx
imately 100000 tons of Allied
shipping during their operations
and this has not been lost sight
of by the various powers. While
il is perfectly true that the sub
marine cannot be used against
merchant ships without violating
the rules of war, yet there IS moth
ing to restrain desperate nation
which possesses them from doing
so, and if the various fleets re-
main in existence the very fact
that they are ''in being" will be
a threat of starvation hanging
over the heads of insular nations
like England and Japan. Natur-
ally enough nations situated like
these would welcome the removal
of this submarine menace.
On the other hand. is is not also
probable that the other nations.
France and Italy for instance, al
so grasp this situation and see in
the possession of a strong sub
marine fleet standing threat
against these nations which will
give them greater prestige and
positions of strength in future in
ternational complications?
France. in particular. will not
welcome any such suggestion, for
her request for a capital ship ton
mage of $4,000 tons has just been
rejected by the Conference and
while she found it the part of
diplomacy to accept a reduced
tonnage allowance to 10000 tons.
vet she was not pleased. and il is
known that she wishes TO create
a fleet of submarines to compcn-
safe for this loss. and she will
hardly surrender her aspirations
a second time.
Thepresent submarine strength
of the various powers is approx
mately as follows: America
$4,000 tons. England 50, AGA tons.
France 1880. Japan 3l,4O0, and
Italy 10000 tons; Abolishing the
submarine would mean the scrap
ping of all these vessels and de-
mobilization of their personnel. a
move which will, certainly not be
taken without great reluctance.
With the supremacy of the CAPT
tai ship as the chief weapon on
the seas being threatened by the
airplane, poison gas and the sub
marine. and with the tremendous
advances being made daily in the
efficiency of these weapons, it is
extremely unlikely that the ma