Our losses of merchantmen by mine or torpedo were again
very serious last Reek. Fourteen large vessels over 1,600 tons and three smaller vessels were sunk, as compared with ten large and three small vessels in the previous week. We also lost seven fishing-boats, at a time when the fisheries are of greater importance than ever, in view of the scarcity of meat. On Tuesday night in the Bristol Channel an enemy submarine torpedoed and sank without warning the hospital ship Glenart Castle.' The fate of most of the nurses, doctors, and crew is as yet uncertain. Hospital ships are immune from attack under international Conventions ; Germany also definitely promised last year to respect hospital ships outside the North Sea and the English Channel. Nevertheless, the Glenart Castle' has been sunk, like the hospital ship Rewa ' on January 4th last, in the Bristol Channel, and another German pledge has been twice violated. Those who clamour for peace by negotiation should ask themselves how the German Government, who will not observe their own undertaking not to torpedo hospital ships in a certain zone, can be trusted to keep any sort of treaty until they are convinced that bad faith does not pay.
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