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Show British First Lord of Admiralty Ad-miralty Sees No Sign of End. IMUST LAf PLANS All Must Help to Defeat j Enemy Submarines-Enormous Submarines-Enormous Tonnage Lost. LONDON, Nov. 1. "We must lay plans for a long war," said Sir Eris. "I sec no signs of Its being a short one." Sir Eric said lie regretted it had not been found possible to arrive at a basis for publication of British ton-nago ton-nago losses by submarine action without with-out giving information to the enemy. The losses of merchantmen in October, Octo-ber, he eaid, were very slightly worse than In September. Enemy submarines subma-rines were being sunk to 'an increasing increas-ing extent but the Germans were building them faster than they had done hitherto. British Tonnage Gaining. In September, Sir Eric continued. 1 there was afloat on the high seas an ' incroase of 20 per cent in number and . 30 per cent in tonnage of BrltiBh ships as compared with April. I He announced the government's in-j in-j tention of appointing an additional I civil lord of tho admiralty and said tho attention, of the first sea lord would ' be devoted wholly to naval staff : matters. Standard ships aggregating 1.000.- 1 000 tons had been arranged for. he said, and more than half of them were i .) n UUUl'l UUIISU UCLIUU. Losses During War. The total net -eduction of British tonnage since the beginning of the, war was given by Sir Eric as 2,500,000 tons. Replying to the criticism that the fleet had not been sent to assist' Russia he pointed out that such an operation would occupy considerable time and that there wore large fields. Naval opinion was unanimous that the step was one that should not bo taken. Sir Eric said there are 235 dry docks which can be devoted to repairs of merchant hipping, exclusively of those used for warships in Great Britain. A reduction of 50 per cent in German Ger-man shipping, Sir Eric continued, had been caused by the sinking of ships, or by their passing into the hands of Germany's enemies. "All by their economy can help the royal navy and tho navies of the allies to defeat the submarines," Sir Eric continued. In September, he added, tho royal naval air service carried out sixty-four raids behind the enemy lines in France, dropping 2,736 bombs. |