Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 73, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1917 — Ships Best Gift U. S. Can Make to the Allies. [ARTICLE]

Ships Best Gift U. S. Can Make to the Allies.

London, April 16.—Admiral Sir John J'ellicoe, former commander of the British grand fleet and now first sea lord, informed the Associated Press during the course of an interview -today that anything and everything in the way of small craft from destroyers to tugs would be the most useful ©otnribution that the United States could make to the war against German submarines. In this connection fop first, sea lord assented that the best hunting ground for raiders is on this side of the water, as the -pos-* siibility of German submarines operating on the American coast is almost negligible unless they have a base on that side. . . . “I have no desire to minimize to the American people,*' said the admiral, “the serious situation prevailing as a result of the illegal use of submarines by the Germans. Neither is it easy for us to take them into our confidence and tell them what we are doing to cope with the evil, without providing the Germans with useful information. No methods existed in the past for fighting the submerg-. ed submarine and the new inventions and processes for that purpose take time to develop. We are giving your navy all the information in our j>ossession and knowing its record we have great confidence that American inventive genius will supplement it with valuable contribution*.—_— “As far as the feeding of the allies population is concerned, our efforts must be concentrated on saving tonfiage while bringing in the necessary supplies, in order to minimize the effect of the submarine warfare. As you probably know, we have bought large quantities of Wheat in Australia but as the round voyage takes four times as long as that to America the bringing of this wheat takes four times as much tonnage as the carrying of American wheat to the allied powers.”