merchandise involved amounts to about one half per cent. of the total
value--ten shillings in every hundred pounds; or fifty cents per
hundred dollars. That won't starve us into submission.

"But the Germans will build more and more submarines? Very probably.
Still, I think we can leave it to the British and French navies to
prevent undue exuberance in that direction. Our sailors have not been
exactly garrulous during this war, but I think we may take it that
they have not been entirely idle. Has it ever occurred to you that
although there are hundreds of Allied warships patrolling the ocean
to-day, you hardly ever hear of one being torpedoed by a submarine?
Passenger ships and freight ships suffer to the extent I have quoted,
but not the warships. Why is that? Don't ask me: ask Jellicoe! But it
rather looks as if the submarine, as an instrument of naval
warfare--as opposed to a baby-killing machine--had rather failed to
deliver the goods.

"The Deutschland? I take off my hat to Captain Koenig: he is a plucky
fellow. The _U 53_? I have no remarks to offer, except to repeat my
previous reference to baby-killing machines. As for the presence of
these two vessels in American waters--in American ports--I won't
presume to offer an opinion. Still, not long ago the U 53 sank six
British or neutral vessels off the American coast, just outside
territorial waters. Fortunately for the passengers, an American
cruiser was in the neighbourhood, to guard against violation of
American waters, and picked them up. But the whole incident looks to
me like a deliberate German plan to jockey an American cruiser into
becoming a German submarine tender.

"Let me see--what else? Too proud to fight? Not much! We know the