A most agreeable comment on the Kaiser's remark about cutting
our vital arteries is provided by the Admiralty return, issued on Wednesday night, of our losses from submarines. The losses of our merchantmen were lower than in any of the fourteen weeks with which the returns have dealt. It is true that all but one of nineteen vessels lost last week were of the large type over 1,600 tons—but unless it should have miraculously happened that most of these vessels were of quite exceptional size, the evidence points to a distinct lessening of the submarine peril. Mr. Lloyd George prepared us for this good news last week. But of course there is not the remotest excuse for not continuing to be as economical as possible in the consumption of food. However much the balance between the Navy and the enemy's submarines may improve, the fact remains—sec the French Minister of Marine's speech last week— that in the first four months of this year the Germans sunk 2,400,000 tons of shipping. That is more than the total output of the world in new ships for the whole of last year.
