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Show EFFECTIVENESS OF U-BOAT BASES MUCH IMPAIRED WASHINGTON, May 11. Navy officials of-ficials here familiar with the waters surrounding the Belgian coast believe the mud Hats of Ostend which have served as a protection for the German submarine base there may now help the British. There is a possibility, they say, that the shifting mud may make it impossible for the Germans to keep clear the narrow channel left by the sinking of the cruiser Vindictive. If the currents about the sunken Vindictive Vin-dictive tend to heap up the silt in tho narrow open space. it will be almost impossible for the Germans to keep it free and the use of the base for U-boats and destroyers will be virtually ended until some way is found to pull tho stouper from the bottle. As it is, naval officials are confident confi-dent the effectiveness of the smaller U-boats, heretofore based at Zeebrugge and Ostend. has been greatly impaired. Some may have been shut up completely complete-ly at Zeebrugge, and unless they already al-ready have been removed, others will share the samo fate at Ostend, if the chanuel silts up. Outside of U-boats that may have been put out of operation completelv in this way, it is virtually certain, it is said, that those remaining outside must, go all tho way back to Germany for supplies. sup-plies. At a time when Ormanv is known to .be no more than holding her own with construction of U-boats, if she is not in fact losing them faster than she can build them, any operati ns that further reduces their numbers or decreases their effectiveness assumes an added value. The result should be shown immediately, it is believed, in tho decreased number of ships submarined. Officials here are watching for the monthly ship loss statement, with peculiar interest for that reason. |