1 MARCH 1919, Page 2

The proposal that the surrendered German ships of war should

be taken out into the Atlantic and sunk in deep water seems too foolish to be true. Of course there would be a certain impressiveness in such a ceremony ; the 'Kaiser's pirate fleet would be committed to perfect oblivion and ignominy and would be appropriately sunk without leaving a trace. But the cost of some ceremonies is far too great, and that is certainly true in this ease. The value of the steel and iron in the hulls even when the hulls have been completely stripped must be very great. Though it might be an expensive process to convert the material to industrial uses, still in these days of famine the expense could not be so great as the value of the m