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Show HOW HE CHASED I GERMAN U-BOATS ' f English Naval Officer Gives an Idea of the Present I : . Submarine Warfare. WASHINGTON. April 26. Rear Admiral Sir Dudley R. S. De Chair, tjie veteran naval officer of Great Britain's war commission to the Unit-L Unit-L cd States, gave Washington newspa-" newspa-" per correspondents today a first-hand story of some of his experiences dur-; dur-; Ing the two years ho commanded a patrol fleet chasing German submarines. subma-rines. Without minimizing the grav-' grav-' ity of the submarine menace, ho confidently con-fidently predicted that it would be '" " o ercome. , ! Commenting on suggestions that Germany might undertake a sub-i sub-i marine campaign on the American t coast, the admiral said this would j) not bp profitable from the German point of view without extensive sup-j sup-j I pl bases on this side of the At-I At-I lantic. I The admiral spoke of the memor-I memor-I f able lessons tho allies had learned 1 I iv the war and said he and his col-J( col-J( leagues had come to place them at r the disposal of the American gov-? gov-? crnment Number Sunk Is Naval Secret. 4 "I only wish," ho said, "that I V ' could tell you the number of Ger- i " man submarines that we havo sunk fi ) 1 1 I'nfortunately, that Is n naval se- j; i ; cret, as also aro the means of de- r ; trction of submarines and of com- batting them, which it will bo nec- i l i c&sary to guard in closest secrecy a ' until tho end of tho war. Your navy I has been furnished with full details, I howeyer, by tho present mission." IS' Of the prospoct of submarines ap- jj peanng in American waters, Admiral 3 l De Chair said: ' ' "It would not pay Germany to In- augurato a general submarine cam- ! ' paign off tho American coast unless J , ' r.he could also establish bases here 1 'v Each submarine carries from eight to ten torpedoes, besides a limited ' fuel suDDly. which would largely be waited In the long trip over and back, not to mention tho warm reception recep-tion she would probably receive Mother Submarine Little Successful. "Mother submarines to supply fuel and torpedoes are known to be In operation, but little direct evidence has been received that thev are successful. suc-cessful. The great difficulty In locating lo-cating the submarines on patrol is largelj responsible. As a result the Germans prefer to stay out for two or three weeks and then return to port, whence they are sent out again almost before the crews have had time to reach shore. "Nobody knows exactly how many submarines the Germans are building, build-ing, but we know they are working at feverish speed and have heard reports that they aro turning out from two to three a week Tho time of construction is about eight months with a similar length of time for torpedoes, and great uncertainty exists as to how long Germany can continue to supply both vessels and torpedoes. We only wish the press could help us to learn this. "The crew of a submarine, as a rule requires from six weeks to two months' training, but the officers and other experts require at least three months. There have been many reports re-ports that the Germans have been forced to weaken the personnel of tho high sea fleet to maintain their supply of seamen, but of this we are uncertain. It is absolutely true, however, how-ever, that some of the captured crews are nearly crazy and wholly sickxit their job Armed Ships Best Defense. "Tho best defense against submarines, sub-marines, we havo found, is the armed arm-ed ships. During the early days they entirely veered away from such vessels, ves-sels, and even now only attack them submerged, when it is necessary to waste a torpedo, which often can be dodged, and to expose the submarine sub-marine itself to destruction. We have found that they are very much disconcerted if an armed ship turns on them direct and tries to run them down." rn |