No question is more familiar in general conversation than :
" Why don't the Government toll us the number of German sub- marines sunk ? " The common belief is that our own people would be encouraged and the Germans would be depressed by the publi- cation of the figures. Sir Edward Carson disposed of this belief once and for all by his intensely interesting description of forty typical encounters between our ships and submarines. The records of a considerable proportion of these encounters show that the sub- marines were undoubtedly injured—shelled, rammed, or bombed— and yet it was impossible in many cases to say whether they sank. In most cases they probably did. But there was no proof. In these circumstances the publication of figures would be very misleading, and if the Admiralty were scrupulous in its claims, as we all wish the Admiralty to be, the result would be to guide and encourage Germany more than we should be helped ourselves. Nothing is more baffling to the enemy than to be in complete doubt as to the fate of his submarines.
