Another Submarine Disaster The British proposal at the Disarmament Conference
to abolish submarines was partly occasioned by our own sad experience of the danger inherent in these craft. The sudden foundering of the ' M2 ' near Portland last January, with her officers and men, has still to be explained. Now the French Navy has sustained a similar loss in the new and large submarine Prometh4e,' which sank last week off Cherbourg while undergoing trials. The commander, a sub-lieutenant and five men who happened to be on deck were saved, but the remaining forty-nine of the crew went down with the vessel, together with seventeen technical experts and workmen from the Ministry of Marine and the builders. Sailors must, of course, be prepared to take risks, but in the case of submarines the peace-time risks are excessive. And when we add the weightier objection—that the submarine weapon is unnecessary and liable to be used unfairly— the case for its abolition is irresistible.
* * *
Previous page
