Salt Lake Tribune | 1919-12-28 | Page 25 | Mines Present Great Menace

liS PRESENT GflESTJEIK Many Laid in North Sea by Germans Not Yet Removed. LOXDOX, Dec. 27. (By the Associated Associ-ated Press.) Until the Germans complete com-plete the sweeping ot iniuo fields they laid iu the North sea there will be considerable con-siderable danger to shipping in waters adjacent to tlie British isles, say British Brit-ish and American naval authorities. Kveu ;if!cr that work lias ended, which will nut he earlier than next suruincr, there will be some danger, which, they predict, will gradually diminish. "Tho American barrage is swept as I completely as is humanly possible, " Admiral ilarry S. Knapp of the Ameri- can navy said to the Associated Press correspondent. 1 A t'ter our area had been pronounced 100 per cent clear, wu inswept Min square miles of it (about 10" per cent) and found only four more mines. These were at a buoyed spot where the sweepers believed they had inis.t.'d some. ' ' ' The greatest menace now,'' ' said Lieutenant Commander Benson ot' the international miue-deyt roving committee, commit-tee, "is tlie uuawiept Uernuju area. Until Un-til that field lias been cleared there .will be a good many drifting mines about. Afterward there will be some danger, but it will rapidly diminish as the e'emenfs destroy the effectiveness of the mines. ' "Lieutenant Commander Benson added that the committee accounted for mines as follows: 'ive per ecu explode when laid, 5 er cent are defective, 10 per cent soon become useless through leakage leak-age and 50 per cent of the total number laid are destroyed by the different systems of sweeping (employed by the British :uid Americans. Committee members believe that a great many of the other M0 per cent; will be carried by the natural north ward currents nf tl North sea into : Arctic ice packs and destroyed; others i will go ashore on the Norwegian coast, as havn many already; a great many! will become harmless Through long1 presence in the water, and a certain! nunilrr will be destroyed by p'.trols which the British uny still is maintaining.