For the present the only anti-submarine help is the help we may be able to give to patrol the wide area off Ireland.  If we had one hundred destroyers to send, the job there could, I am told, be quickly done.  A third of that number will help mightily.  At the present rate of destruction more than four million tons will be sunk before the summer is gone.

     Such is this dire submarine danger.  The English thought that they
     controlled the sea; the Germans, that they were invincible on land. 
     Each side is losing where it thought itself strongest.

Admiral Sims is of the greatest help imaginable.  Of course, I gave him an office in one of our Embassy buildings, and the Admiralty has given him an office also with them.  He spends much of his time there, and they have opened all doors and all desks and drawers to him.  He strikes me (and the English so regard him) as a man of admirable judgment—­unexcitable and indefatigable.  I hope we’ll soon send a general over, to whom the War Department will act similarly.  Hoover, too, must have a good man here as, I dare say, he has already made known.  These will cover the Navy, the Army, Food, and Shipping.  Perhaps a Censor and an Intelligence (Secret Service) group ought to come.  I mean these for permanent—­at least indefinite—­service.  Exchange visits by a Congressional Committee (such as the French and British make) and by high official persons such as members of your Cabinet (such also as the French and British make)—­you will have got ideas about these from Mr. Balfour.

     W.H.P.

In the latter part of June Admiral Sims went to Queenstown.  Admiral Bayly, who directed the operation of the anti-submarine forces there, had gone away for a brief rest, and Admiral Sims had taken over the command of both the British and American forces at that point.  This experience gave Admiral Sims a first-hand picture of a really deplorable situation.  The crisis was so desperate that he made another appeal to Page.

     From Admiral William S. Sims

     Admiralty House, Queenstown,
     June 25, 1917.

     My Dear Mr. Page: 

     I enclose herewith a letter on the submarine situation[61].

I think I have made it plain therein that the Allies are losing the war; that it will be already lost when the loss of shipping reaches the point where fully adequate supplies cannot be maintained on the various battle fronts.

     I cannot understand why our Government should hesitate to send the
     necessary anti-submarine craft to this side.