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Show ! 1 COMMUNICA TION f England's Part. Editor Tribune Anont your editorial in today's issue on the a hove topic, I wish to challenge your statement where it is slated that "("Jreat Britain and France placed great faith in submarines, but as events have proved have not used them so ff fectively as the Germans." That statement won't stand acute criticism. criti-cism. Jn the first plae. where are anv German targets for British submarines to operate against? 'Tk-r mercantile fleet is swept from the hiirh seas and her warships war-ships lie safe in behind mine fields and h eav i I y p ro t e c t ed 1 ia i bors. a nJ . like a mouse or rat in a hole, only venture out when their Xeppelin souts signal that, either the coast is clear or that they are more than strong enough to cope with any force in sight. Furthermore, British i submarines do not, and could not, operate against non-combatant mercantile ves- sels or fishing trawiers. That tvpe of I warfare is left to the "marvelous efficiency" effi-ciency" of the German ones, who have adopted that unscrupulous type of warfare war-fare because of their impotency against legitimate prey. Does anyone mean to say that if British submarines had as many targets to aim at and would sink to such methods they could not have surpassed the German performance? Why, . tool; at the scores of British ships leav- j ins channel ports for France daily, as the British force now in France is over : two million bayonets, with another half million at the various military bases, 1 which now are one of the marvels of the age. some containing miles of supplies, with thousands of motor trucks and men engaged in the handling of such material. ma-terial. And, as her casualties in France are over 700.000 and several hundred thousand men in the trenches have been home In Kngiand on furlough, it is seen that fully three and a half million men have been safely landed in France, and the two million fighting men there have j already enough food supplies and fodder I for horses to last at least six months ! and more than enough ammunition of j all kinds to use up three or four Somme offensives. David Lloyd George himself stated that so adequate was the supplv that Haig's army at the conclusion of the last big offensive on the Somme, which was stopped by the inclement weather, had more ammunition on hand than when the drive was first commenced. Yet this stupendous total of men, equipment, food i and fodder has been safely transported i across the channel without loss and at! the present time is still greater. What a glorious target these hundreds of ves- ! sels flying daily across the channel, and j w'hat a miserable failure the German sub- marines have been in failing to do any : effective work against so legitimate a prey! Suppose British submarines had I an opportunity like that, and all that j stupendous work going on, with the sec- ! ond most powerful navy in the world be- i hind its mine fields and fortified harbors ! only a few hours away from this scene of i stupendous operations, yet so competent I as to be unable to do anything to hamper ' the operations. But I am not so foolish as to imagine that the British will be successful in transporting such immense masses of men and material till the end of the war. ! A raid on the channel Is only, and would be only, an incident just like a raid on a trench in land warfare and has, very little bearing on the general phase of operations. Nearly 200,000 men, with their equipment, have been sent from Canada to Britain, but I fail to have heard of any German submarines doing anything effective against so legitimate legiti-mate a prey. Should we be so unfortunate unfor-tunate as to be driven into this European malestronand have to send -a large force abroad, the probabilities are that they would have to be carried in British bottoms bot-toms and escorted by British cruisers, as our own navy at the present time is more or less helpless, having had no experience in coping with the subtleties and new devices in offense and defense with submarines, sub-marines, floating and other mines. Millions Mil-lions of acres of idle land are now being tilled in Britain, so that in the next year or so she will be able to produce fullv 83 per cent of necessary foodstuffs, and this with the establishment of huge granaries as a reserve supply will tend to lessen danger of Britain being starved out in any future 'war. This war has opened her eyes in more senses than one. and, according- to David Lloyd George and the business men he has gathered around him, they will see that they take full advantage ad-vantage of such an experience. The day of the politician has set, so far as Britain is concerned, and real business men. those capable of handling such matters of state in a thoroughly businesslike ' manner, has dawned, so something really beneficial, as well as evil, will arise from the present conflagration. JOHN MORGAN. Garfield. Utah. February 10. |