Papurau Newydd Cymru

Chwiliwch 15 miliwn o erthyglau papurau newydd Cymru

Cuddio Rhestr Erthyglau

9 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

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A deputation of the Navy League which was received by the First Lord of the .i\.d. miralty and Sir John Jellkoc, last wee A, came away satisfied that everything con- ceivable is being done to protect -Allied nt- tacks. That should contribute to the Viii, dication of the Navy from reproaches ing a culpable ignoring of a new, a most serious and a most dangerous phase of the war. But is "everytMing conceivable" succeeding in quelling Vie ? abun-iriiie cam- paign? At the moment wo should fiky no. cvea. threaten, 4 campaign, uport'i -nd w.is fccale. People may asTc what could be more ruthless than the present methods, which are ih many cases these of atrocious mur- der but it is pointed out that attacks upon liners h"Ve not ;>sen comitton. aim toat ,t' a general rule ships liave not been put down on sight. The German shipbuilding yards continuo to put submarines- into the water with un- exampled rapidity, through tdandardised manufacture, and whilst these vessels are accumulating it is probable that a large 1: r f number of men for manning them are also available. Twenty to thirty submarines of the mo? recent types are said to be ell'l gaged, at Kiel in training crews alone and our bdief that the Genlan5 could not pr<? %ide in a short space of ?ime a personnel of th necassary skill appears to have been as much belied by events as the similar German idea that we could not im- provise certain,branches' of an army—viz he artillery and statf, in which exceptional cachnica.1 Requirement s are in demand. Well-informed civilians of sober judgment like Messrs. Pollen and Hurd consider that the Germans, can greatly increase their submarine activity, aiid +Ii'feiwify its ruthletoiiess. Mr. Hurd puts the number of new sub- marines completed by the enemy every week at three, by building on the lines of which the Ford motor ear is the best known ex- ample. They are vessels, moderate in fome respects, but featuring a. great radius of action, that enables them to make prolonged cruises well out in the Atlantic, which several have crossed. Storeships, sub- mersible like the Deutschland, ca.n renew their stock of oil and projectiles, of which a great quantity can be carried on vessels whose displacement exceeds 1,000 tons. If the first German submarines were small and of limited radius, so, too, were the vast num- her of craft which put an end to their depredations, and measures successful in the harrow seas ha.ve to be transformed for application'to -blue water, The enemy claims that in December 162 British ship.ith a tonnage of 419,000, were sunk. and that "since the commence- ment of the war 1,245 British ships have been put down, with a ton,nagc of a little under 3,000,000. Every month the German pers published lists which fill cciumrns of the vessels thus, sunk. These are perfectly pre- cise documents, which give the names and nationality of the sunk vessels, their toll- nage, speed, character, cargo, destination, when sunk, and where sunk. In one month the Germans claim to have sunk a fifth of the amount of mercantile shipping that our yards put into the water when working under norma] conditions in 1913. The fac-j tors to-day tend to diminish well as to increase the spaed of construction. A test of the sanity of a lunatic who is | Ruppoesd to have recovered 1 is said to be to lock him in a bath-room, turn on all the taps, and give him a mop and tell him to mop up the water. If he simply uses the mop lie is put back into the asylum. If he first turns off the taps and then uses the mop he is held fo be a creature of sweet reasonableness and health of mind again. On this principle, it is little use launching mercantile shipping if the rate of destruc- tion exceeds the rate of construction. But a mercantile shipbuilding prwgramma1 upon a great scale is called for in any event, to nmkeuip the losses already sustained, however speedy the success of the Navy in destroying the submarines—and the num- bers of the latter are being continually re- pienished at increasing rate. Ali condi- tions at the moment particularly favour the submarine campaign—jtbe locking up of shipping in military supply, the shortage of food, the reluctance of neutrais to engage in dangerous or insufficiently remunerated, trades, the withdrawal of German and Austrian shipping, etc. The best method I for the individual citizen to adopt ii- to get busy upon ail allotment, to eat sparingly and to be preipared for a limited and scanty daily dole of the simplest forms of food. The old conception of sea-power has been revolutionised by a peculiar combination

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