Reports of another German naval mutiny, among submarine crews, have
reached this country. Our natural desire to believe them need not be wholly repressed by the caution which we have learned to exercise in regard to these neutral rumours. We may fairly say that the story, though unconfirmed, is not improbable. Our own feeling is that the personnel of the enemy submarine service is likely to give out long before the resources of the German shipyards are exhausted. Landsmen do not realize the influence exercised by gossip among those whose duty calls them to sea. We feel sure that the heavy toll taken by our patrols from the U '-boats must have a depressing effect on the enemy crews. In the German ports talk probably turns upon little else. " Has the ' U300' come back ? " And the next question is, " Will she ever come back ?" If the German sailors begin to feel that the perils of the service are daily increasing while the results are steadily diminishing, their reluctance to venture their lives in the U '-boats may develop into a flat refusal to serve.
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