The losses of shipping through submarine attack continue to be
the absorbing topic. We may fairly say that they are now the only cause of anxiety. In the House of Lords on Thursday week Lord Beresford said that we lost more vessels from mines than from torpedoes, but that fortunately a brilliant plan had been invented for overcoming the danger. We hope that it will be possible to apply this plan promptly for the benefit of all trading vessels. Lord Lytton, speaking for the Admiralty, said that the weekly return of losses was nothing more than " a list of targets." From that point of view, however, it was not strictly accurate, because the same ship was often counted more than once in the return if she visited more than one port during the week. On the other hand, the return included vessels which were sunk when not plying to British ports at all. On the whole, the return gave a perfectly true picture of what was happening.
