The Government response to the German submarine campaign, 1917
(NRS reference: GD40/17/638/7

Transcript: 

A few words about the German submarine campaign.

I have not – I never have been – one of those who think that the British people flinch from the truth; therefore I tell you quite plainly that the scale and scope of the German submarine attacks upon the merchant shipping, not only of ourselves and of our Allies, but of the whole world, constitute a very serious danger. The surface supremacy of the sea is, and has been, ours since the beginning of the war. It has scarcely even been challenged. It is still true, if I may be allowed to adapt the famous sentence of that distinguished American historian, Admiral Mahan, that the fat off storm-beaten ships of the Grand Fleet, upon which the eyes of the German High Seas Fleet have not looked more often than they can help, stand between our enemy and the dominion of the world. 

But the barbarous, ruthless nature of the underwater war upon peaceful shipping is another story. Like all new dangers it must be met – and is being met- by new methods. But do not imagine that the problem can be solved by any one man or any one method. It can only be solved by patient concentration, tireless energy, and the cumulative effect of every measure and device that human ingenuity can suggest.

We have got to tackle – and we are tackling – the problem at both ends. At one end we have got to destroy as many enemy submarines as we can – and for this we must look to the new Board of Admiralty and to the distinguished sailors who have come fresh from the sea, to devote their days and nights to the problem. As the Germans themselves have confessed, the British Navy dealt only too faithfully with the menace in its earlier phase. I do not believe the British Navy will fail us now: they have never failed us yet.

At the other end we are adopting what I may call defensive measures: and here I mean the vigorous efforts the Government are making to economise tonnage, to restrict superfluous imports, to provide British merchant vessels with a defensive armament, and to build new ships. One of the first decisions taken by the new War Cabinet was to see that our gallant merchant seamen shall be enabled to exercise their immemorial right of defending themselves against attack; and we laid it down that the Admiralty requirements for the defensive armament of merchant ships should have priority over all other demand for guns. I often wonder how long neutrals will endure the ruthless sinking of their ships without giving their own merchant seamen the same measure of protection which for centuries has been recognised as the right of all who sail the broad seas.

As to the construction of new ships, our aim is to see that if possible as many ships are put into the pool as the Germans can take out of it. The Shipping Controller, in conjunction with the Admiralty, is hard at work laying down fresh keels. What we want is a standardized cargo vessel – a sort of “Ford” merchant ship - whose parts can be built and put together with great speed.

I think I have said enough about this question to show you that the problem is being tackled with energy and vigour, and that we are leaving no stone unturned to deal with the danger with the same success as we have dealt with it before. Let us once rid the ocean highways of these pests, and we shall have done much to regain for the whole world the true and liberal “freedom of the seas.”