We are now engaged in working ourselves up to a high pitch of enthusiasm over the submarine torpedo boat The subscription opened by the Matin for the purchase of one of these vessels, to be called the Frangais, already amounts to over £9,000. Other subscriptions for the same object are to be opened in various parts of the country. The Bfatin's list contains some amusing items. One who hates the rosbifs" contributes a franc; "Gustave Gasser, journalist" produces the large sum of thirty centimes; thirty little patriots at school," eight franes, five centimes; to paint the Frangais with Paroid, five franes" (no doubt from the inventor of Paroid"), ete.
There is a delightful naivete about some of the comments on the submarine torpedo boat. According to General Lambert, the hero of Bazeilles, who has taken to journal-mis in his old age, "the British fleet has now lost its supremacy. A little Gustave Zédé, a little Morse, and a little Frangais will suffice to destroy the greatest naval force. They glide silently beneath the surface of the ocean and deliver their blow, and lo! the great floating fortress leaps into the air; twenty or thirty million franes are swallowed up in the water, with hundreds of human lives. The submarine turns back; it is going to obtain a fresh supply of power and explosives. It returns to the charge. Another battleship lost All the attacking power of proud Albion is paralysed." Other ardent spirits write in the same strain. The Minister of Marine is severely criticised for going on with a battleship (laid down by his predecessor) instead of spending the money in submarine boats. What is the use, it is asked, of building battleships now, when you can have twenty sous-marins for the same money? What, indeed.
'As a matter of fact, the submarine torpedo-boat is still very' far frown being the terrible engine of destruction imagined by General Lambert. The Gustave Zédd is 150 feet long, costs £32,000 and requires a crew of at least15. On account of her size she is a difficult vessel to handle, and, according to Col. Monteil, she cannot remain under water more than twenty minutes at atime. If she is as wonderful a vessel as the organs of the Minister of Marine would have us believe, i+ is curious that four other types, the Morse, Narcal, Frangais, and Goubet' should have to be tried. There is strong reason to think that, M. Lockroy's eulogy of the Gustare Zédé was a clever manceuvre to soothe the national vanity after the Fashoda affair. It will be remembered thut there was a similar outburst of jubilation in Spain few years ago over the submarine torpedo boat Péral, The inventor was landed with honours but the Péral was never heard of during the war.
Another French invention which may have some influence on the future of submarine navigation has just been reported to the Acalemy of Medicine. M. Joubert, a chemist of some repute, claims to have discovered a substance which will automatically absorb the carbonic acid and other deleterious gases given off by respire ion and will replace them by pure oxygen.
provided with seven or eight pounds of this substance can, it is asserted, remain at least twenty-four hours in an air-tight chamber. As the mysterious substance is, now being tested by the navy officials, no details of its composition are allowed to transpire. If it answers expectations, it will remain a State secret and should prove of considerable assistance in the submarine navigation problem. It would be interes ing to know what effect highly oxygenised it would have on a crew towards the end of a long stay under water.
27th January.
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Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.