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There have been many accounts written of the work done by the French naval pilots on various occasions, but never has there appeared a comprehensive "resumé" of their achievements. For this reason, the following table which we are able to reproduce through the courtesy of the French Ministry of Marine, is of especial interest:

ACTIVITY OF THE SEAPLANES, October, 1917-August, 1918

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FRANCE MAY CEDE WEST INDIES ISLANDS TO U. S. FOR WAR DEBT.-Confirmation was lacking of the London press report that the United States is to receive the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique as part payment of France's war indebtedness to this country.

The taking over of the Virgin Islands from Denmark at a cost of $25,000,000 set a precedent for the acquisition by the United States of title to islands of the West Indies.

Guadeloupe and Martinique are islands of considerable size, lying east and south of the Virgin Islands. Sugar cane is their principal product. Considerable quantities of cocoa, coffee and cotton also are produced on both islands.

The suggestion regarding Guadeloupe and Martinique appears to be taken seriously. It was pointed out that the cost price of the two islands would not make more than a small dent in the financial obligations of France to the United States.

Naval experts were not particularly enthusiastic when their attention was called to the London report, saying Guadeloupe and Martinique would be of little value to the United States. Each island has a fairly good port, but neither is equal to the port of Charlotte Amalie in the Virgin Islands.

The ceding of Martinique and Guadeloupe would leave as the only French possession in the western hemisphere French Guiana. If that were included it would mark the first foothold of the United States on the South American mainland. This would naturally disturb the South American republics, and as the policy of this country is to calm apprehension in that part of the world, the idea makes no hit with American diplomats.-Baltimore Sun, 10/3.

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COMPREHENSIBLE PLAN OF THE PROPOSED FRENCH AERIAL MAIL ROUTES, PREPARED BY THE CHIEF OF THE FRENCH AERIAL MAIL SERVICE.

GERMANY

SHOW 260 SHIPS IN JUTLAND BATTLE.-German Vessels Riddled-Berlin Statement of 3076 Loss in Personnel Appears to be Confirmed.-London, Feb. 21.-There is no reason to doubt the substantial accuracy of the German official account of the losses suffered by the German fleet in the Jutland naval battle, May 31, 1916, it is learned officially by Reuters. The German figures published June 16, 1916, showed that the casualties to the fleet's personnel were: Officers: killed or missing, 172; wounded, 41; other ratings, killed or missing, 2414; wounded, 440. Total, 3076. Official details of damage done to individual vessels follow:

Battleship Koenig, struck about fifteen times and badly damaged. The ship went down by the head until her forecastle was only six and a half feet above water. The crew of the forward torpedo tube was imprisoned until the ship was placed in dry dock on June 5. Four fires were started on the ship and Admiral Hehnke was wounded in the head. The casualties on board were heavy.

Seydlitz Struck by 28 Shells.-Cruiser Seydlits hit by 28 shells and one torpedo from a British destroyer. Her forecastle was riddled and her

fore turret was put out of action. The entire crew of the turret and magazine were killed, with the exception of three or four men. The ship was beached in a sinking condition, but was afterward refloated and repaired. She suffered heavy casualties.

Battleship Grosser Kurfürst, damaged by a torpedo and four heavy shells. Engines were damaged.

Battleship Markgraf, badly damaged, a torpedo having struck her. Battleship Oldenburg, hit by a shell from a destroyer, which killed eleven and wounded about a dozen, mostly officers on the bridge.

Battleship Ostfriesland, struck a mine, which tore a large hole in her starboard side. She was assisted into port by salvaging vessels.

Battleship Schlesien, slightly damaged by splinters and injured in a collision which occurred when she attempted to avoid the torpedoed Pommern.

Battleship Schleswig-Holstein, so badly damaged that the repair work necessary required several weeks.

Heavy Losses on the Luetzow-Battle cruiser Lützow, sustained at least 40 direct hits from British gunfire, which did enormous damage, and was also twice torpedoed in the evening after the battle. She was abandoned the next morning and sunk by two German torpedoes. Her casualties are variously given as being from 400 to nearly 600.

Battle cruiser Derfflinger, so badly damaged that she had to be recon structed, a large quantity of armor and guns from the unfinished Hindenburg being used for that purpose.

Cruiser Moltke, hit by three large shells, and was under repairs until August.

Cruiser Von der Tann, one turret completely put out of action and another virtually useless.

Cruisers Sunk to Prevent Capture.-Light cruiser Elbing, so badly damaged that she was scuttled to prevent her from falling into the hands of the British.

Light cruiser Rostock, after being damaged by gunfire, was blown up by her crew to prevent capture.

Light cruiser Wiesbaden, reduced to a complete wreck by gunfire and was finally torpedoed. There was only one survivor of her crew.

Light cruiser Frauenlob, set on fire and wrecked by gunfire, torpedoed and sunk. Only eight of her crew survived.

Five destroyers are known to have been sunk, while others had to be towed into port.

A complete record of the British forces engaged in the battle shows 24 dreadnoughts, 8 battle cruisers, 18 cruisers, 18 light cruisers, and 78 destroyers. The German force included 21 battleships, 16 cruisers, and 77 destroyers. It is clearly established, however, that of the ships which actually came into action the preponderance of force was held by the Germans.-N. Y. Times.

729 KILLED AND 1,754 INJURED BY ALLIED AIR ATTACKS.-Copenhagen, March 16.-Seven hundred and twenty-nine persons were killed and 1754 injured in aerial attacks by Allied forces in German territory up to November 6, 1918, according to official figures made public in Berlin.-Baltimore Sun, 17/3.

THE RETURN OF THE TROOPS.-An Address by the Commissary of the People, Haase.-Berlin, December 12.-At the arrival of the divisions of chasseurs made up of troops from all parts of Germany, Haase, the commissary of the people, held the following address near the Brandenburg gate:

Soldiers, the council of commissaries and the government of the socialist republic greet you in the most cordial manner. We have sympa

thized with your sufferings and your fatigues during this war full of anguish. When the government took the power in hand, it firmly decided to avoid prolonging, even by a single hour, the stupid human butchery. Our only anxiety has been to tear you away from this complicated drama and bring you back to a successful work. We welcome you to this country which is composed of a free people of comrades. The yoke of military imperiousness no longer reigns, it no longer oppresses the unrestrained expansion of free thoughts; the former sovereigns, who forced you into war and who heaped up suffering upon suffering upon you, are down. Under the cursed régime our popular existence has been devastated; you have been called to collaborate in its resurrection. In the barracks your comrades wear the socialist insignia and the red flag waves on the State buildings. Red is the emblem of human fraternity. Up to the present you have only been presented with caricatures of socialism: a society based on the principles of socialism has no other aims than to suppress rivalry between countries and make war impossible. After the teachings of this war who would want to again excite brother against brother? From the ruins which the war has caused, there arises a great task for socialism. The question is to create a world where neither oppression nor suffering will be seen. It is your duty, soldiers, to make the movement follow a successful course rich in results. The dark powers of the past should nevermore prevent the efforts of the laboring class to rise to the level of human dignity. Our most ardent desires are for the establishment of liberty and fraternity."-German Press.

The Supreme Council has decided that the personnel of the German fleet is to be restricted to 15,000 men, according to press dispatches from Paris.-N. Y. Times, 12/3.

GERMANY'S FALLEN MERCHANT FLEET.-The growth of the German merchant fleet from 1800 on is illustrated in the following table, which shows the total carrying capacity of German vessels in the years hereinafter named:

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Even more striking than the increase in the country's shipping has been the gain in the value of Germany's foreign trade. From 1830, or when comparative statistics first became available, the total foreign trade of the territory embraced in the former German Empire has been estimated as follows in millions of marks:

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The remarkable expansion of Germany's foreign trade after the formation of the Empire is further brought out in the next table which shows both the quantity and the values of the goods exported and imported in the years named:

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Coincident with the growth of the country's foreign trade, Germany's merchant fleet nearly doubled in size between 1836 and 1849. Imports increased faster than exports. In 1847, the Hamburg-American line was started with a capital of 300,000 marks. Its first vessels were sailing ships, the pioneer unit being the Deutschland of 717 tons which carried 220 passengers. The same year witnessed the departure of the first steamer from New York to Bremen. This vessel named Washington flew the American flag and, together with its sister ship President, was owned by a syndicate styled the Ocean Steamship Navigation Company, which had been formed by the State of Bremen, some neighboring German states, and certain prominent Germans in New York. This company was the first to establish regular steamship communication between the continent of Europe and the United States. Thanks to the large immigration to America, these paddle-wheel steamers proved profitable for a time. When the United States Government failed to renew its subsidy, however, the company went into bankruptcy in 1857. The North German Lloyd Company was thereupon formed to take its place.

Previous to the repeal of the British Navigation Act in 1849, colonial products like cotton and sugar were imported mostly by way of Great Britain. After the last-named year, however, these articles could be brought to Germany direct, which resulted in an increase of German overseas trade. About this time iron ships were first built. German shipping interests established lines of coastal steamers from Lübeck to Copenhagen and Petrograd and from Hamburg to Hull and London. The first German ocean going steamer, the Helene Slomann, was dispatched from Hamburg to New York in 1850, but was unfortunately lost on her third voyage with all on board.

Following the discovery of gold in California, in 1849, ships sailed from Hamburg to California laden with gold-seekers. As no return freight was to be had along the American Pacific Coast, these ships crossed over to Asia in search of return cargoes. Whereas only ten Hamburg ships put into the port of Hongkong in 1850 with a total carrying capacity of 4500 tons, 315 such ships with a carrying capacity of 94,000 tons entered the same port in 1864.

From 1870 on, the number of German sailing vessels began to decline. In 1877 Rostock had 356 sailers of 100,000 gross tons. By 1903, this same fleet had shrunk to 28 vessels of 17,000 gross tons, only eight of which were sailing vessels. Papenburg on the Ems, Germany's only catholic seaport, possessed in 1869 190 sailing vessels. This number had declined to 23 in 1900 and just prior to the outbreak of the war one solitary sailing vessel constituted Papenburg's entire merchant fleet. Of the 990 barks belonging to the German merchant fleet in 1876 only 23 remained when the war broke out. As to the 643 brigs in existence in 1876, not one remains to-day. Between 1875 and 1895, German merchant ships diminished from 4800 to 3600.

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