16 FEBRUARY 1918, Page 2

Last week our losses -of merchantmen by submarine or mine

were again serious. Eleven large ships over L600 tons—the American troopship Tuscania ' among them—were sunk, as compared with twelve the week before. Six smaller ships and three fishing-boats were also sunk ; in the previous week we had lost five small ships and four fishing-boats. After their comparative failure in January, the enemy submarines are clearly making a new effort. Spanish merohantmen, which for a long time -have enjeved immunity, are now being sunk far out in the Atlantic, to swell the' '- boat totals, and an-Italian ship has been torpedoed in .Spanish waters. But Spain, like the other neutrals contents herself with a mild protest.