many more; in Siberia, perhaps a score, each with its national life and tongue. Among these the Buriats are one of the most civilized; they are Mongolians, of the race that gave mediaeval history some of its greatest conquerors, men like Genghis and Kublai Khan, like Bati and Tamerlane, like Baber and Akbar the Magnificent, a family that made far wider conquests than the Caesars, famous also for high literary gifts and, in an epoch of bigotry, for deep religious toleration. The Buriats are spread out on both sides of Lake Baikal, the great obstacle in the way of the trans-Siberian railroad. They have their comparatively high civilization, their books in Mongolian, largely translated from the Northern sent the following mesage to Admiral Henry T. Mayo, commander of the United States Atlantic Fleet: The Grand Fleet rejoices that the Atlantic Fleet will now share in preserving the liberties of the world and in maintaining the chivalry of the sea. Admiral Mayo replied: The United States Atlantic Fleet appreciates the message from the British fleet and welcomes opportunities for work with the British fleet for the freedom of the seas. The fact is noted by commentators that the submarine toll, which reached high-water mark in the last week in April, showed a reduction after the American vessels reached the scene of operations. * * * BRITISH NAVY'S GENERAL STAFF Buddhist scriptures of Tibet, their chief A GENERAL STAFF for the British Lama, with papal headquarters at Goose Lake. They are rich, possessing large herds of excellent horses and cattle, they are able to dress themselves in silks during the Summer, and in rich furs in Winter. They, like nearly all Mongolian peoples, have an innate gift for agriculture, giving more attention to intensive fertilization than do the Russian Siberians themselves, and being large purchasers of the newest American agricultural machinery. Here, it would seem, is a real national unit, as definite as Serbia. They ask, now, for national autonomy; many other Siberian tribes may follow their example. * ** AMERICAN DESTROYERS AT WORK IN EUROPEAN WATERS THE first contribution of American military power to the Entente Alli ance against German aggression consist Navy was announced May 15. It is headed by Admiral Sir John R. Jellicoe, the First Sea Lord, who will have the title of Chief of the Naval Staff. Vice Admiral Sir Henry Oliver, Chief of the Admiralty War Staff, is an additional member of the Board of the Admiralty, with the title of Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff. Rear Admiral Alexander L. Duff also became an additional member of the Board of the Admiralty, with the title of Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff. Rear Admiral Halsey, formerly Fourth Sea Lord, became Third Sea Lord, in succession to Vice Admiral Frederick C. Tudor, who was appointed Commander in Chief of the China station. Rear Admiral Tothill succeeded Rear Admiral Halsey as Fourth Sea Lord. FIRST AMERICAN RED CROSS UNIT ed of a flotilla of American torpedo-boat THE first of six fully organized and destroyers. The vessels reached England May 4, but no announcement was made of the fact until May 16. The squadron was placed under command of Rear Admiral Sims. Immediately on their arrival the American vessels began operations in the submarine zone. The British Admiralty announced that these swift fighting ships were rendering services of the greatest value to the allied cause. Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty, commander of the British Grand Fleet, equipped hospital units which the American Red Cross is sending to France arrived in England on May 17. The unit comprised about 300 persons, including twenty army medical officers, sixty nurses, and more than 200 other attachés. It is Base Hospital 4 of Cleveland, Ohio, commanded by Major Harry L. Gilchrist, Medical Corps, U. S. A., and is under the direction of Dr. George W. Crile. This unit will be the first officially AMERICAN ENGINEERS IN FRANCE ANNOUNCEMENT was made May 7 by the War Department that orders had been given for the forming of nine regiments of army engineers, which were to be sent to France as quickly as possible for railroad work along the lines of military communications. There will be more than 1,000 men in each regiment, or nearly 10,000 in the expedition. Two regular army engineer officers-a Colonel and a Lieutenant Colonel-will be assigned to each regiment. The other officers will be chosen from the Engineer Officers' Reserve Corps, the mem * * * URING the first three weeks of May the United States Government loaned the Entente Allies $670,000,000, divided as follows: Great Britain, $325,000,000; France, $100,000,000; Italy, $100,000,000; Russia, $100,000,000; Belgium, $45,000,000. Loans will be made in regular installments to the Allies, and it is estimated that the aggregate will reach $1,000,000,000 by June 15, 1917. THE * * * HE United States Government invited public subscriptions May 15 to $2,000,000,000 of the $5,000,000,000 loan authorized by Congress; interest, 32 per cent., maturity thirty years, redeemable in fifteen years at the option of the Government. Denominations of bearer bonds are $50, $100, $500, $1,000; registered bonds $100, $500, $1,000, $5,000, $10,000, $50,000, $100,000. The bonds have privilege of conversion to any bonds of higher interest if issued; they are exempt from all taxes except inheritance. the first two months (February and March) of the unrestricted submarine campaign was 1,600,000 tons sunk, one million tons being British. In the Reichstag on May 8, Dr. Pfleger, naval reporter of the Budget Committee, stated that when the complete figures for April were available they would show that the German submarines had destroyed at least 1,100,000 tons of shipping. Vice Admiral von Capelle, Minister of the Navy, who spoke after Dr. Pfleger, said that the results greatly exceeded the expectations of the German Admiralty, for during the three months of February, March, and April 2,800,000 tons had been sunk, the number of ships being 1,325. Details are lacking to show how Admiral von Capelle's figures for the number of ships are arrived at, since the British Admiralty reports only 275 British ships of over 1,600 tons and 130 of under 1,600 tons, a total of 405, sunk during the period between Feb. 1 and April 29, exclusive of fishing vessels and other minor craft. A French official statement shows that the number of French merchantmen sunk during February, March, and April was 17. Norway lost 64 ships of unspecified tonnage during March and 75 during April, a total of 139. There are, of course, the losses of other Allies and neutrals to be taken into account, but some experts decline to accept the German figures. Nevertheless, authoritative statements in the allied countries make it clear that the havoc wrought by the submarines is extremely serious. Lord Devonport, the British food controller, speaking in the House of Lords on April 25, said that British shipping was being depleted every day in large volume, and that it was at the moment "a wasting security." Herbert L. Samuel, a former Cabinet Minister, speaking in London on April 27, said that figures he had seen on the sinking of vessels showed that the situation was worse than official reports indicated. Admiral Lord Beresford, speaking in London on May 1, complained of the incompleteness of the official returns, and said that the losses were appalling. He was inclined, he added, to risk the penalties of the Defense of the Realm act and tell the people the truth. American official utterances have been equally alarming. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, addressing a joint meeting of the Council of National Defense and Governors of States in Washington on May 2, made the startling statement that in the previous week German submarines had destroyed 400,000 tons of shipping. Secretary of State Lansing, without being so specific, was no less emphatic in declaring that the seriousness of the submarine situation could not be exaggerated. Reports to the State Department gave a total of eighty vessels lost in one week, figures much higher than any contained in recent British announcements. J. Bernard Walker, editor of The Scientific American, speaking at the annual meeting of the National Security League in New York on May 2, said that it was more than likely that Germany had on the ways and nearing completion not fewer than 500 submarines/ of the U-53 type and within six months should have about 700 submarines afloat, and in twelve months 1,200. Evidence at hand, he added, indicated that German shipyards had room to keep work on 530 submarines constantly under way. According to an interview with a member of the crew of the German submarine U-58, printed in the Amsterdam Telegraaf on May 15, the Germans have about 325 submarines in operation and about 80 to 100 have been lost through British nets alone. When at sea the submarines assemble at a given point every morning and receive wireless instructions, presumably from Heligoland. There are about thirty-nine U-boats of the newest type, each carrying a crew of 56 men, and this fleet is supplemented by a secondary squadron marked with a C. The first-class boats have a speed calculated as sufficient to overtake any cargo boat. Two-thirds of their crews are experienced and one-third novices. The boats carry a fortnight's stores and have a maximum period of submergence of from eight to ten hours. Each is equipped with two periscopes and sometimes descends to from 30 to 50 meters. re The two most important American vessels lost have been the oil tanker Vacuum and the steamer Rockingham. The Vacuum was sunk on April 28 off the north coast of Ireland. Seventeen of the crew, including American naval gunners, died from exposure in the boats in which they left the sinking steamer. The loss of the Rockingham was ported on May 2. The vessel, valued at $1,300,000 and carrying cargo worth nearly $2,000,000, was sunk just before reaching Liverpool from the United States. Two members of the crew were killed. The others on board, including an officer and gunners of the United States Navy, were saved. Estimates of Captain Persius Captain L. Persius, a German naval critic, writing in the Berliner Tageblatt in the last week of April, estimated the total tonnage of merchant craft destroyed by the German Navy from the beginning of the war up to April 1 at 6,641,000. Of this total, he said, 6,000,000 tons were enemy shipping, and 4,998,500 tons are said to have been sunk before the opening of unrestricted submarine warfare on Feb. 1 this year. The total of 1,642,500 tons destroyed in February and March are itemized by Captain Persius as follows: Warships and auxiliary cruisers such as the Emden, Karlsruhe, and Möwe have accounted, according to Captain Persius, for between 400,000 and 500,000 tons of enemy and neutral shipping; but he explains that these figures are put completely into the shade even by individual achievements of certain submarine commanders. Three of these are credited with having accounted for more than 100 ships each, aggregating between 250,000 and 300,000 tons. As evidence of how U-boat activities have developed during the war, Captain Persius gives the following figures of tonnage sunk by submarines: Commenting on these figures, Captain Persius said: "Unless countermeasures can be found, the shipping losses of our enemies will swell to still greater proportions. It remains to be seen what will be the consequences. So much, however, is already tolerably certain today-the naval supremacy of Great Britain will emerge from this war at least shattered." THE The Sinking of Hospital Ships HE British Admiralty issued a statement on April 23 announcing the sinking of the two hospital steamships Donegal and Lanfranc without warning by submarines; nineteen British and fifteen wounded German officers were drowned. In their statement the British authorities denied the German charge that hospital ships were employed to transport troops and military supplies. The statement asserts that Germany was notified that under the rules of international law she had the right to visit and search any such suspicious craft, which she refused to do. Germany was notified that, if her course was persisted in, reprisals would follow, yet the British hospital ship Asturias was torpedoed without warning on the night of March 20. The ship was steaming with all navigation lights burning and the proper Red Cross signs brilliantly illuminated. The cumulative evidence that she had been torpedoed and not mined was only accepted after it had been confirmed beyond all doubt and after exhaustive investigation. The loss of life on this occasion included a nursing sister and a stewardess. The German official wireless message of the 26th finally established the guilt of the German Government, who, having boasted of the deed, published on the 29th a further message, which said: "It would, moreover, be remarkable that the English in the case of the Asturias should have abstained from their customary procedure of using hospital ships for the transport of troops and munitions." On the night of March 30-31 the hospital ship Gloucester Castle met with a similar fate. On this occasion the Berlin official wireless message again published a notification that she was torpedoed by a U-boat, thus removing any possible doubt in the matter. The British Government thereupon authorized prompt measures of reprisal, and on April 14 a large squadron of British and French airplanes bombarded the German town of Freiburg with satisfactory results. In spite of the warnings conveyed to Germany that her barbarous attacks on hospital ships would result in such action on the part of Great Britain, the German Government published through a wireless message of April 16 an abusive protest which "categorically contested any justification" for this reprisal. The markings agreed upon at The 'Hague Convention, which had hitherto guaranteed the immunity of hospital ships from attack, rendered them no longer inviolable. The custom of showing all navigating lights and illuminating the distinctive markings at night only afforded a better target for German submarines. It was therefore decided that sick and wounded, together with medical personnel and supplies, must in future be transported for their own safety in ships carrying no distinctive markings, and proceeding without lights in the same manner as ordinary mercantile traffic. Notice was accordingly given to the Gernan Government that the British Government had withdrawn certain vessels from the list of hospital ships published in accordance with international law. During the recent fighting on the western front a large number of wounded German prisoners have fallen into British hands. These have had to be transported to England for treatment by the same means as the British wounded, and practically all ships transporting wounded are bound to carry a proportion of German wounded. These naturally share with British wounded equal risks from the attacks of German submarines. Although Germany did not frame any formal allegation of the misuse of hospital ships against the Allies until the commencement of 1917, the British hospital ship Asturias was fired at and missed by a German submarine on Feb. 1, 1915, in broad daylight while flying the Red Cross flag. In the light of recent events it seems reasonable to suppose that the hospital ships Braemar Castle and Britannic were also torpedoed in November, 1916, although the evidence at the time was not considered conclusive. After the case of the Gloucester Castle the British authorities made no further announcement that German prisoners would be conveyed on hospital ships, but the German Government followed their hint by removing a number of imprisoned French and British officers to camps at unfortified cities, which action was announced to be in reprisal for the course of the Allies in bombarding such cities and conveying German prisoners on hospital ships. [See also article on "German Reprisals," Page 547.]. The British Government let it be known that, on account of the danger in transporting the wounded, they would be kept at hospitals in France. In consequence several thousand new medical men were ordered to the French front, and preparations were made to send an increased number of hospital units from the United States. It was stated that the first American hospital unit after the war declaration sailed from New York May 12, headed by Dr. Creel of Cleveland, Ohio. |