March 5, Despite all the bombastic boastings of the Nazi leaders the first six months of warfare has in no way improved the German position, while it may safely be said that the Allies have emerged from it very much better than they had reason to expect at the outset of hostilities. Within a few hours of the declaration of war by the Allies the Reich had embarked upon its submarine campaign, taking it up with the same ruthlessness and disregard for international law, and conven tions signed within recent years governing conduct in times of war. It was stated that the Allies were better futed to deal with the U-boat menace than ever before, and events. have proved the claims to be true. With all its energies devoted to submarine and mine warfare, the use of the magnetic mine and mine-laying by aeroplane, Germany has failed to secure any results comparable with those of the tragic month of April, 1917. The loss of Allied shipping is small as compared with the amount of tonnage continually at risk, and while, by reason of the convoy system, the number of trips made by each vessel is reduced there is nothing whatever to show that the German attempt at blockade need cause any great deal of anxiety. On the other hand the German mercantile has been swept from the seas, some of it captured and put into the service of the Allies as an offset to submarine and mine sinkings, while the rest socks refuge in neutral ports, waiting to make dashes for home with much wanted supplies, and scuttling if they see any danger of falling into the hands of the Allies, The extension of the blockade to German exports has proved highly successful, and, if it is true as Herr Hitler has claimed that Germany must export or die, it must already be in the unenviable position of awaiting the anticipated end to the stranglehold which the Allies have placed upon German economy. It may be a slow process, but the last war showed its inevitability and there is no new development in this one to suggest that it will not make the same contribution to the expected Allied victory, In considering the claims which the Ger-nans make concerning the damage they allege they have done to the Allies, it ix interesting to note that when it comes to figures the Reich handles them just as carelessly as.
does other -matters where truth is concerned. Thus in connection with the shooting down of a Belyian airman when he: was trying to warn a German aeroplane trespass sing over Belgium, the Belgian statement de~ clares that three of their machines took the air to pursue the invader. The Germans profess there were seven, suggesting ratios which could with safety be applied to German claims of success on the one hand and allegations of damage done to the enemy on the other. The German claims concerning alleged sticcesses during the past six months of fighting are so fantastic as to call for no particular oficial comment, while the German addiction to the untruth is by now so manifest that they fail to carry any convietion whatever. On the other hand the successes of the Allies in the air as well as fon the sea are imposing, British aeroplanes nightly make deep raids into Germany, appearing even over Berlin and scattering the "bomphlets" which cause the German officials 50 much annoyance, and the possession of which leads individuals into trouble. Nightly patrols over the German air bases in Heligoland Bay are reported to have had the effect ind the fact that they can carry out these lids and patrols without Let or Tight upon the German claim to have command of the North Sea, They have, of course, nothing of the sort, and the rapidly growing air strength of the Allies, which by now should have passed that of the enemy, ought, human)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.