23 MARCH 1918, Page 1

Last week we lost by mine or submarine eight large

merchant- men over 1,600 tons and six smaller ships, as against fifteen large and three small ships in the preceding week. Ten ships escaped from their assailants. The hospital ship ' Guildford Castle,' carry- ing four hundred and fifty sink and wounded from East Africa, was attacked unsuccessfully by an enemy submarine on March 10th in the Bristol Channel, where two other hospital ships have been sunk this year in direct violation of German pledges.