The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-04-30
[ Cover the World
BY WILLIAM PHILIP sINDds

WASHINGTON April 3o.-Naval experts
w here are convinced Germany has secretly
evolved pocket U-boats" comparable in their
way TO her pocket battleships," and will short
~ confront the allies with them as she did with
her army and air force.
Confrmatio nof this, they add, would bring
the European embroglio to a prompt and dras-
tic showdown Chilled to the marrow at the
very mention of submarines the British govern
ment would insist upon reckoning without de-
lay.
Records reveal that few U-boat sinkings
took place very far outside the waters of the
warning powers. Most of them were near the
coasts of the British Isles and in the Mediter-
ranean. Hence small submarines in large num-
bers might starve the British out
Germany is known to posses the industrial
equipment for rapid construction of submarines
of the 25O-ton type such as are now reported
being built. BY Standardization, such craft could
be turned out on mass production basis
Germany, this writer is informed, is passing
her new war machine on two hypothesis One
is that she can not defeat France by an old
fashioned land invasion. The other is that she
can not defeat the British navy with similar
navy Hence her plans for great air force.
an unsurpassed chemical warfare section and
swarm of undersea craft
During January, February and March, 1917,
allied and neutral shipping losses totaled two
and quarter million tons The kaiser's u
boats had beaten Britain to her knees. By Of
fetal admission she stood with her back to the
wall.
CHE was saved by Americas entry into the
- war. Another great sea power was there
to help her defeat the submarine and build new
tonnage to take the place of that lying at the
bottom of the ocean.
BY the first quarter of 1913 submarine sink
ings had fallen to about million and quarter
tons, and Anglo-American yards were building
ships faster than the Germans were sinking
them
Britain thus was spared defeat by the mar
rowest of margins. And it was the German
U-boat, not German dreadnaughts that did the
damage.
Today the British government is more gravely
concerned than at any time since the Armistice.
When France informed her more than two years
ago that Germany was rearming or land, Britain
was only mildly interested Germany's army
could not swim the channel and the Treaty Of
Versailles specifically forbids her to have mill
tary aircraft and submarines.
Chancellor Hitler has suddenly and drastic
ally changed this picture. His air fleet could
bomb London so minutes after the take-off. On
top of that, the British Isles are in danger of
being encirced by moving ring of pocket
subs" to cut off their food supply
Naval officers here declare that both the
offensive and defensive properties Of the sub
Guido those of any other type. For poor ma
ton it gives maximum efficiency for the least
money 1t can keep the greatest fleets at a re-
spectful distance. 1t can sink capital ships and
play havoc with merchant shipping
Even Germany's old-fashioned World War
subs of 26O tons had cruising radius of nearly
5000 miles and could spend weeks at sea with
out returning to base.
German engineers experts here are con-
vinced have not been idle merely because the
Versailles Treaty outlaws U-boats. On the con-
trary, they are believed to have evolved dan
gerous super-Sub.