| OCR Text |
Show sunn GREATER Till MIME Sir Eric Gecldes Addresses House of Commons; Submarines Sub-marines Sunk Faster Than Constructed. BRITISH NAVAL HEAD OUTLINES SITUATION Allied Forces in European Waters Will Shortly Be Augmented by Brazilian Bra-zilian Warships. . l.oxnox, M.uvh ,r.. "Our allies arc maklnir nvury of fort to inerniM) tludr production pro-duction of ships." Sir Krie Ceddt-s, first lord of the udmlriilty, said Unlay, "but desplio flowing rcorts In tho America" prrss. and groa t as the cf fort of t hat country doubth-sa Is, there Is no doubt a considerable tlnio must rlapsu before the desired output Is obtained. "Kor some months," Sir Krte ald, "wo believo that wo und that tho Americans have boon sinking submarines as fast as they aro built." Sir Krto, whoso nddrcss w;ia delivered in the, houso of commons, said the naval forces of tho allies In Kuropean waters would be augmented shortly by a force of Hi-iizilian warships. Tho trend of the figures of loss of shipping ship-ping by enemy net ion was steadily Improving, Im-proving, Sir Eric slated. The loss to the world's tonnage during February was little lit-tle moro than half the loss during February Feb-ruary of last year, he saiiL Much Exaggeration. Sir Krie said tho rat of exaggeration In tho German reports of tonnage, alb-. d to have been sunk was increasing steadily. stead-ily. Tho exaggeration in the m- -ond quarter quar-ter of the period of nn restricted sub marl ma-rl no warfare was twice, that of t lie first quarter. The rates In the third ami fourth quarters were three or four times that of tho first quarter and In January four and one-half times the first quarter. "I believe the Individual piece worker on ships works as hard now an he did l:st year when he is actually at work." Mr Kric continued, "but he seems readier to tako holidays, and we cannot afford holidays, if improvement is pot speedily made the point where production balances losses will be postponed to a dangerous extent." Losses at Night. The first lord said he was seriously concerned at the increasing number of v ess j Is lost at night. It appeared the enemy was assisted In this mat ter by necjivronce on the part of shipowners, who displayed lights instead of darkening their vessels. In the waters around the British isles, which had been tho enemy's chief field for submarine operation, the groa test suceofses against the U-boats had been obtained so far. latterly with the help of American naval forces, said Sir Erl' On the other hand, conditions In the Mediterranean Mediter-ranean had been more di f ficult. losses-there losses-there accounted for some 30 per cent of merchant ships sunk. The resources for combating the submarines In those waters wa-ters were less adequate and the successes obtained less satisfactory. It became increasingly evident, the first lord went on. that as the resources for combating the submarines Improved it would be possible lo turn attention more to the Mediterranean. He continued: "I recently went to Rome for a meeting of the allied naval commit te and also Inspected naval establishments in the Mediterranean. Including tiioe of the Greek navy. Pritish naval officers are assisting as-sisting the Greeks In reorganization of their navy, which already is co-operating In the Mediterranean and rendering valuable valu-able service." Close Co-operation. It was perhaps natural, Sir Eric continued, con-tinued, that co-operation between Great Britain and the United States stould be extremely close. On behalf of himself and his colleagues he wished publicly to pay tribute to the whole-hearted and generous gen-erous devotion to prosecution of the war which governed the action of every representative repre-sentative of the United States navy with which they came Into contact. The personnel per-sonnel of all ranks, he said, had the respect re-spect and esteem of the officers of the British navy. Concerning shipbuilding, he said thero was no lack of materials at the present time and that there were more men in the yards, but the output reached only 5S.O00 tons In January, although it fhonld have been much larerer. It was true the weather was exceptionally bad, and also that January, owing to the holidays, al-wavs al-wavs was a bad month for the output of ships.' One week or one month could not he taken by itself. He expressed the opinion that February would be shown to have made nearly twice as good a record as January, although only about two-thirds two-thirds of what the same yards had done previously with fewer men. Submarines were being destroyed in increasing in-creasing numbers, he continued, and as the methods employed against them were developed the numbers would be enlarged still further. There was a growing reluctance on the part of German crews to put to sea. The chances that a submarine would return from a voyage in tho waters around England En-gland were one In four, or one In five. Loss 10 Per Cent Less. The loss for the five months ending with February was 10 per cent less than the loss during the corresponding months of the year previous, he added, although during the four months of the latter period pe-riod unrestricted submarine war had not been proclaimed by the enemy. "I have stilted," the first lord continued, con-tinued, "that the curve of losses of merchant mer-chant sloping continues downward. That statement is as true today as when previously pre-viously made. It is true there have been bad weeks and bad months. February was, in comparison with recent stand-, ards, a bad month. But, on the other hand, January was a good one. "As to the curve of tho loss In the world's tonnage, only two months of the current quarter have elapsed, but assuming assum-ing the March loss to be as high as that of February, I find that the falling carve continues." Regarding the rate of ship production. Sir Eric said that instead of a rise there had been a serious drop. "Why?" the first lord asked. "The main fact is that owing to labor unrest and strike difficulties the men in the yards are not working as If the life of the country depended on their exertions. exer-tions. The employers are perhaps not doing do-ing all they could. The long strain of the war must have an effect upon their nerves as upon every one else. The serious seri-ous unrest which existed in January will have an effect on completions in later months. 1 am driven to the conclusion that even at this late date the situation is not fully realized." ' l |
