10 
LAND & WATER 
December 14, 1916 
conditions. The character of that change is not ilirticult 
to pcnx'ivi-— and consociucntly thi- charactir of the 
rouiiter-measuivs whiiii must be taken. If the submarines 
have developed new methods of evading our attack, it is 
manifest enough tiiat those same means -if possible 
improved and extended — must be employed by us against 
tiiem. This is a subject which it is undesirable to discuss 
in detail, and I allude to it only as indicatinj,' tlK^t the 
present submarine campaign is marked b\' a novel 
character, and that the only explanation of our failure to 
deal with it, as we have dealt with previous campaigns, 
roust be found in our offence being inferior to their defence 
in this respect. The enemy, in other words, has got 
ahead of us and must stay ahead until ecjuality is restored, 
for it is only with ecpiality of means that the offence will 
regain its legitimate superiority. 
Anti-Submarine Campaign 
The position created by submarine attack has alw^ays 
called for four definite "lines of action in reply. The 
direct offensive against the submarine —either in narrow 
waters or on the high seas— is after all only one of them. 
The lirst and— because the most effective —necessarily 
the foremost, is the effort to keep them out of open waters 
by barricading them into their own. Unfortunately this 
is a line of action which is also the most hazardous and 
most chthcult. A fleet action, deci5i\c and destructive as 
well as successful, would no doubt make this operation 
incalculably simpler. And f am very far from saying 
that, without such an action, nothing at all along this 
line can be done. Let us leave it for the moment at this, 
that the most desirable counterstroke is also the most 
diflicult. The second, in order of importance, is the active 
offensives of which we have already spoken. It includes 
the employment of nets, mines, fast and slow patrol 
vessels, and a great \-ariety of stratagems and devices 
tjnnecessary to specify. Our resources in these used to 
give us a ratio in results definitely proportioned to the 
number of boats open to attack, and it is the change in 
this matter that makes it clear that the enemy is cmjjloying 
aids to c\asion which we have not 3'et counteracted. 
Third, comes the better equipment for self defence of the 
intended \ictims that the submarines are after. Finally, 
there is the restoration of the losses we suffer from the 
successes of the submarines which we cannot prevent — 
the urgent need of building merchant shipping so con- 
stantly insisted on in these columns. 
It is on the third and fourth of these points that t wish 
to-day to put forward a few considerations. The clearer 
it becomes that we must wait before we can e.xpect 
seriously to diminish the pirates' numbers, the more 
important do these two aspects of the counter-campaign 
become. 1 pointed out last week how the enemy claim 
to be disposing of the tonnage, on which the Allies depend, 
at the ratc'of 10,000 tons a day. The number of ships 
taken since August is beyond anything that previous 
experience would have led us to expect. In the four and 
a half months which have elapsed, nearly twice as many 
ships have been sunk as went in the whole of the seven 
and a half months of the first campaign. The eflrciency 
of eighteen months ago is, in other words, multiplied 
nearly by four. It was stated, in one of the evening 
papers of Monday, that 74 ships had been sunk in the 
first ten days of December, and that the destruction of 
over 90 had been published in the same period. On 
Tuesday, the loss of 11,000 tons was announced almost 
as if it were normal. The proportion of neutral ships 
amongst those sunk is now far higher than it used to be. 
And one of the obvious reasons why this is so is that, so 
far no neutrals liave armed their ships. I am interested 
to see that the suggestion that they should arm, put 
forward in these cohmins some weeks ago, has since been 
seriously discussed in the Spanish press. But until they 
arc armed the toll must continue high. 
Smoke Screens 
One of my correspondents, Mr. Dudley Kidd, urges, 
and with considerable force and plausibility, that mer- 
chant ships could greatly increase their chances of safety 
by increasing the difliculty of the enemy, if — whether 
armed or imarmed — they borrowed a hint from the 
enemy's own battle tactics and employed smoke screens 
to baffle and confuse the submarines. It is a proposal 
which, I am told, has been urged upon the merchant 
service by individual naval officers, if not by the Ad- 
miralty, but so far without success. It is certainly one 
that siiould be experimented with as rapidly as possible 
and on the largest scale. It is not as if we were able forth- 
with to arm every merchantman either adequately or at 
all, or to supply each ship with trained crews for using 
the armament. It must be many months before anything 
like such arming will be possible — and even if it were 
jHissible it would leave the neutral ships unprotected. 
There could be no objections to neutrals using smoke ! 
Again, it is not as if we had a sufficiency of suitable craft 
for patrolling the routes completely, or convoying 
\esscls on routes that could not be patrolled. The con- 
voy system, of course, saves guns, for clearly if two armed 
vessels carrying eight guns can safeguard 10 or 15 ships 
that are unarmed, but would need 30 or 40 guns to make 
them self-protective, centralisation has effected its ■ 
usual economy of force. That the convoy system is 
feasible is proved by repeated instances in which armed 
merchantmen have protected those Jihat had no guns. 
On the other hand, if ue had to rely upon convoys alone 
for the protection of our shipping, we should be introducing 
another evil, not perhaps so serious as that which we 
should be guarding against, but serious enough in all 
conscience. I mean delay. Alrcad\- shipping is .sufli- 
ciently handicapped in this respect owing to shortage of 
labour, port and railu-ay congestion, and so forth. So 
that, if it became the only condition of shipping being 
safe at .sea that it should be convoyed, the enemy woukl 
be inflicting a heavy loss upon us by compelling us to 
adopt the dilatory methods. Again, the new larger sea- 
going submarines are armed with guns that can tie used 
with effect at ranges unheard of a year ago. They have 
lendered the armament of merchant ships by light 
pieces almost ineffective. If the difficulties of arniing 
all our merchant ships are insuperable now, they must 
Mr. Bruce Bairnsfathcr is cne of the soldiers who have 
arrived on fields other than battlefields. In fact, we look at 
the war from one aspect through his eyes ; Bill, Bert and 'Aif 
are as well known to us as to him. In Builds and Billets (Grant 
Kicliards, 6s.), he tells us of the beginnings of his " frag- 
ments," and takes us back to the Flanders trenches of I()I4- 
15. Incidents he relates which seem to have happened so long 
ago that we almost ask ourse ves, " Is the man writing about 
this war or the last ? " And the book ends with the pause 
tliat came in the author's career through the explosion of a 
Hun 17-inch H.F. There are many illustrations in the 
familiar style, and some dehghtful marginal sketches. B.B. is 
an artist right through as well as a good soldier. There is a 
sadness about the book for all its nierrv laughter. On 
reading it a civilian will understand better Sir \\'illiam 
Robertson's advice : " Be chocrful." 
Here is an edition of The Maslcrjncccs of La rontauie 
(B. H. Blackwell, Broad Street, Oxford, 2s. (xi.), whicii 
delights from cover to cover. The fables arc " done in a 
vein of phrasing terse and fancy into English ven.c," by 
Paul Hookham, and the pen-and-ink sketches of Margaret 
L. Hodgson are thoroughly in keeping with the spirit of 
the fables. It is a very charming \olume. 
If circulation counts, Mr. Nat Gould easily takes first place 
as far as sporting stories are concerned, and his latest book. 
Breaking the Record (John Long, 6s.) is sure to be welcomed 
by ^ certain large public. The author's hand has lost none 
of its cunning, and in this book he shows again that he can 
describe the thrills of a good sporting race, and, in addition 
to tins, can tell a rattlin'j; good storv. 
The Rising Tide, by Margaret Deland (John Murray. 5s. 
net.) is the story of Fredcrica Payton, who believed in truth 
so desperately that she told it on all occasions, knowing noth- 
ing of expediency. She believed also, in suffrage, and in the 
equality of the sexes, and in all the other things that very 
young people believe in — incidentally, she believed also that 
a woman has just as much right to propose to a man as a man 
has to propose to a woman. The author tells her ston>' in sucli 
a way that one retains sympathy with Fredcrica throughout 
the book, which will form an excellent conective for extre- 
mists in the new views of hfc. It is a striking story whicli 
illustrates tlie value of conventions, and the folly of rebellion 
against accepted rules of life and conduct. 
