Our losses of merchantmen from mine or submarine last week
were again gratifyingly small. Five large ships over 1,600 tons and two smaller ships were sunk, while six escaped. In the previous week we had lost four large ships and one smaller ship. If the Navy can keep the losses within these limits, it will have done much to solve the shipping problem. A Spanish official despatch from the Canaries reports an action between a British destroyer and two U '-boats, and the subsequent finding of two German sailors from two submarines who would not say what had happened. In reply to a question in the House on Wednesday, Dr. Macnamara stated that the torpedoing of two steamers in the Mediterranean in December had involved the loss of seven hundred and eight lives, and that forty-one men perished in a pilot vessel mined off the Mersey on December 28th. These facts illustrate the gravity of the submarine menace, but the Navy will, we are sure, find means to overcome it.
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