Coincident with the admission by a German broadcaster that his country had lost about 35 submarines, a figure which closely approximated the estimated 30 claimed by M, Campinchi, French Minister of Marine, to have been destroyed by the Allies, comes an account of an article appearing in the Netherlands newspaper "Telegraaf" pointing out the uselessness of the German naval campaign against Great Britain. The German admission is interesting as clearly demon-rating the accuracy? of the information issued by the Allies from time to time on the subject of anti-submarine activities, and affords an excellent example of the truthfulness which is naturally derived from the Allied disposition to understatement as contrasted with the reckless flamboyancy of the German lie. In this connection Herr Hitler's doctrine that any lie will stick if it is only big enough needs always to be borne in mind, especially when German writers and broadcasters profess great indignation when they and the Reich are accused of handling the truth indelicately. The fact is that it is part and parcel of Der Fuehrer's whole policy. That has been proved time and again. But if the German commentator over the radio admits a loss of about 35 submarines, it may naturally be asked how many have really been lost, for even in this admis. sion it is not to be believed that he was telling the truth, but something rather less than that. If, therefore, it subsequently transpires that Germany has lost more U-boats than are at present admitted it will not be at all surprising. But, whether that proves to be the case or not, the fact is that Germany has lost about one-half the submarine fleet with which she entered this war. It is true that replacements may already have been made, but as a test of the Allied reply to the menace of the submarine the figures now revealed are highly significant. The Allied claims at the beginning of the war, that new inventions ensured adequate means of combatting the submarine menace, have been completely justified. That threat is now by no means as serious as it was during the last war, and, moreover, is now under control.
The remarkable figures showing the great success of the convoy system state that 6,363 vessels have been safely escorted in and out of Allied waters, against but twelve vessels lost, Losses under the convoy system of 9.6 per cent. in the last war have now been reduced to 0.2 per cent, and the special commentary which contains these statements very rightly winds up with the remark that "Individual triumphs and setbacks grip popular imagination, but the issue will be decided by the ceaseless flow of convoys to and from British ports." In an attempt to offset the relentless pressure which is being exerted upon Germany through the blockade, the Reich has been driven to desperate measures. Indiscriminate mining, endangering neutral as well as Allied shipping, and the sink-on-sight-policy followed against neutral vessels, are signs of the desperate condition in which the German navy finds itself, and at the same time is an admission that the German naval campaign has so completely failed that its only chance of success is against unarmed and unprotected vessels. In an article dealing with the sinking of the Netherlands vessel Arendskerk the "Tele-graf" draws precisely the same conclusion. The ship, contrary to the claims of the German Government, carried no contraband and her destruction is rightly claimed by the writer of the article to be "one of those acts of vain violence which brings no glory to the German Navy." The author considers that German tactics, aiming to isolate Britain, have failed in advance, the number of British ships daily leaving British ports being so disproportionate to the number the Germans succeed in destroying that the uselessness of German naval warfare is proved. On the other hand the naval campaign of the Allies has proved entirely successful. Their navies have managed to sweep the whole German mercantile marine from the seas, save where an isolated vessel sometimes dashes out from neutral refuge in a wild attempt to regain a German port. Surface raiders have been dealt with as in the case of the Admiral Graf Spee, while the German Navy hides behind ts mine fields from the overwhelming might of the Allied fleets, Nor has the campaign of attrition by acroplanes and submarine, directed against the British fleet met with any great success. The loss of the Royal Oak and the Courageou: together with a few much smaller vessels has inflicted no very severe damage upon the British Navy. That arm together with the French fleet has established complete control of the seas save in the Baltic the only stretch of water where Germany can carry on her commerce without interference. Together they are responsible for the growing Success of the economic warfare, a success which it is expected will one day so have strangled German economic life that Nazi Germany will no longer be able to sustain the war effort. In a review of the position before the House of Commons, Mr. Ronald Cross, Minister for Economic Warfare, pointed out that for years before the outbreak of hostilities the' German people lived under wartime conditions, making German economy so rigid that it should be all the easier to break. If that conclusion is the correct one, economic events in Germany may take a different course than during the period 1914- 1918, in which event 2 more rapid collop: of the Reich may be expected. German contentions, that supplies from the Balkans and swussia, as well as what has been seized from the Poles, will offset what is lost to her through the blockade are not to be believed. Russia at war needs all she has for herself, and what Germany may be able to obtain from south-eastern Europe will not suffice to make good that which is being kept from her through Allied naval action. The attempt to isolate Great Britain has up to the present proved a complete failure, There is no reason to believe that it will amount to anything else in the future. The submarine has been shown to be a very much overrated weapon, and, in the loss of at least one-half of her effective U-boats, Germany has already suffered a defeat of prime magnitude, It has been more successful against the unarmed shipping of neutral countries, but, as that has been wholly without means of striking back, the task of the German submarine has been all the easier.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.