The fact that the forty encounters described by Sir Edward
Carson occurred within eighteen days is itself evidence of the harrying to which the German submarines are exposed. But there was more and weightier evidence than that. Let us summarize the principal facts. An Anti-Submarine Department has been established at the Admiralty, and every member of the Fleet has been invited to send in suggestions for " downing " submarines as a result of his experience. Imagine the gusto with which the young gentlemen in command of small craft must be responding to this charming invitation I Meanwhile the Board of Inventions has at its service the greatest mon of science in the country. No certain
cure for the submarine plague exists. A great number of remedies have to be applied simultaneously. High in the list is the arming of merchantmen. In two months the number of armed merchant- men has increased by 47.5 per cent., and the proportionate increase is growing every week. Whereas 75 per cent. of armed merchant vessels escape after meeting a submarine, only 21 per cent. of unarmed vessels resist successfully. Sir Edward Carson, however, had never heard of a single British merchant seaman refusing to go to sea. This is a magnificent fact—an example to the whole world.
