DeccmbtT ii, 1915. 
LANO AND . WATER. 
October. I did not include in the October return.s 
live ships attacked in the Mediterranean. To- 
day's diagrams give October with these live ships 
added. This and the No^■ember diagram distin- 
guish between the Mediterranean and the home 
water losses by representing the former in circles 
and the latter in squares. The third diagram 
represents the attacks made by, British submarines 
on German ships in the Baltic. The period co\ered 
is from October loth until November loth. Since 
that date we have had no news of the state of this 
campaign. From these diagrams the reader will 
notice that in the month of No\'ember, 53 British, 
Allied and Neutral ships were reported as sunk 
by mines. 
The increase in the total bag is caused by the 
Mediterranean campaign. Here, as was pointed 
out when this campaign began, the concentration 
of allied shipping on the routes making for 
vSalonica,andthc large area of the hunting ground, 
created conditions exceedingly favourable to 
U boat attacks. The task of patrolling and de- 
fending the transport lines is here complicated by 
bewildering performances of the men who make so 
light of the dangers of the Dardanelles passage. 
The Admiralty probably ieel that, to tell the 
stor\- of ^\•hat has been done, without indicating 
the means that made it all possible would be 
meaningless, and that to reveal the means would 
be to give hints to our enemy that he is far better 
without. We must then contain our souls in 
patience, but a rich harvest of wonder and amaze- 
ment awaits us when the full chronicle of these 
achievements can be written. 
The campaign of our submarines in the Baltic 
is one of the most curious features of the war. 
The thing began, as one can see by the diagram, 
with extraordinary abruptness on the loth October 
and ended as abruptly a month later. When I 
say ended, I mean our knowledge of it ended. 
There are two explanations of there being no 
further news. It is possible that no more ships 
ha\e been sunk, because no more ships have come 
out of port. It is equally possible that the right 
proportion of those that have come out have been 
sunk but that the news has not been published. 
1. EL 
-— 
1 1 
L 
N 
N 
n% iNi n 
AIN 
1 1 3 4 f 6 7 g 9 10 11 K » H 1' 16 17 l»19'20'M'2JJ324'25'2617'2«'i9'303i 
2. P 
m 
N 
N 
InH n (^JNl [Nl 
; 2 3 4-56 7 8 9 «)ni21314iyi6 171819202122yi4251«27282?30 
2>. 
n 
n 
m n 
10 11 VI 13 14 15 16 17 10 19 20 21 22 2324 25 2627 2S 29 30 31 1 2 3 4-56789 -lO 
No. 1. — Ships reported as sunk In October. 
No. 2. -Ships reported as sunk in November. 
No. 3. German ships attacked or sunk in the Baltic during October and November. 
In the ■bove diag-ams ships sunk in the Mediterranean are represented by circles. Those in home waters by squares. In the case of British 
ships, circ'cs or squares arc left blank. Allied and Neurral are marked by "A" and "N" respectively. 
the necessity of hunting out the stations, or the 
neutral ships, that must serve the German sub- 
marines as depots. How far the French and 
Italian navies have been able to contribute to 
this campaign is not known. Several rumours 
have reached us of German submarines having 
been sunk, but they are unreliable, and there 
seems no reason for altering a previously ex- 
pressed opinion that the U boat campaign in 
the Mediterranean is likely to continue at least at 
its present efficiency for some time. 
On Tuesday morning the Admiralty an- 
nounced a new series of successes of our own 
submarines iri the Sea of Marmora. The state- 
ment was a veiy bald one. Neither the number 
of the submarine nor the name of its commanding 
officer were given, and one supposes that there is 
excellent reason for reticence. ^ Still, it is impossible 
not to regret that almost nothinji.ir; known of the 
There is at any rate no bad news. Had the 
Germans sunk any of our submarines they would 
not ha\e kept that cheering fact to themselves. 
One thing is certain. The successes of our boats 
and their continued presence in probably greater 
numbers must have modified the German use of 
her Baltic communications very materially indeed. 
How far this has reacted on the land campaign 
we cannot yet tell. But it is quite obvious that 
it should tend to embarrass Germany at her 
weakest point. If all the munitions, food, clothing 
and supply of the armies on the Riga front have 
now to be sent by land, the pressure on the railways 
must be enormously increased, and any increase 
of such pressure spells a further demand for men 
to tend the railways. Arthur Pollen. 
Mr. I'ollcii will lecture on " The Navy" on behalf of Naval and 
Military Charities at Dc Montfort Hall, Leicester, on Thursday, 
I)cc>cmlier i6th. 
17 
