s CAPTAIN CASTEM AND SUBMARINE - WARFARE. [To ran Eerros or
zaz " Sescriron."1 Sta,—Truth sheuld be stronger-than fiction, and in the interests of the former would it not seem- appropriate to lay before the public the facts about which so much controversy has raged, and thus let men, judge for themselves whether. Lord Lee's strictures were justified? In. Captain Castex's Synthese de in Guerre Sous-Marine, published by Challamel in 1920, the author writes as follbws (pp. 2' and 28)':— "Engagee dans un conflit for- midable d'oit elle. attendait flute monie ntondiale, l'ayant prepare, voulu et dechaine; le voyant tournant contra elle et compre- -nant rapidement qu'elle y jouait. son existence, IA.11emagne avatt he devoir, pour sa cause, de mettre en jets tous lee moyens et . de- demander a Parme sous marine de. nutre au maximum a, Pennemi. Rile devait no pas la negligee; sous peine de commettre une•faute grave de nature h lui faire perdre la partie." "Engaged in a formidable-con- flict from which she expected ta attain world hegemony,: having prepared it, willed it, and initi- ated it, seeing the conflict going against her and quickly realizing that her existence_ was at stake,, Germany's duty in her own in- terest was to utilize all' her' re- sources and' to call upon the' submarine, to do its utmost to harm the adversary. She could not afford to neglect it. without risking; the loss of. the war."
The above.is the author's argument, and there.is no: question, here of. the famous " Ainsi raisonnent lea Allemands," which: occurs on an earlier page (p: 24) and relates to other. arguments.
After quoting Sir Percy Scott's letter to the Times of. July 15th, 1914, in which he-pointed out the value of the sub- marine for attacking the enemy's vulnerable communications and his supplies of food and fuel, Captain Castex proceeds :—
" Puisque le sous-marin per- "As the submarine enabled mettait de in faire, ii fallait them to do, so, they had to make- l'utiliser. Son" usage repondait A use of it. It enabled them, to, cat emploi integral des moyens make full use of- their resources,
sans lequel no faut pas without which there can be no attendre de vigueur dans lea vigour in hostilities. In fact, one hostilites. En somme, on ne voit can see nothing in. all this, on-the rien dans tout cela, de la part part of the Germans, which is des Allemande, qui no suit abso- not absolutely correct from the- lument correct naditairement par- military, point of view."
.lant."
After referring- to the German& having warned the world of. their sinister intentions, he proceeds. to condemn thens, for having, in too- many cases, soiled their flag by the-barbarities of their submarine warfare, aggravated by outrageous acts. The fact remains,, however, that Captain Castex gives it as his opinion that the Germans, on purely military. grounds, were justified in making use of their submarines for attacking
merchant ships. 'If he does not mean this, .what.does he mean? The continuance of goodwill and .mutual confidence between Prance and 'England was never anore desirable-than to-day, and the attacks upon the First Lord of the Admiralty thysleading organ of his own country should not be allowed to embitter a controversy in which the French delegates themselves recog- nized the -accuracy of the observations which he made at [As the French text of Captain Castex's articles is now extremely difficult to procure we are glad to be enabled by our correspondent to put the relevant passages on record. We agree with' him that Lord Leo has been very badly treated. But as controversy upon this subject might easily get out of hand and be detrimental to our relations with France we hope that the 'matter 'will 'now be allowed to drop.—ED. Spectator.]
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