correspondence continued with varying results until the United States
entered the war.

FORCED DECREASE OF NEUTRAL TRADE WITH GERMANY.--Neutral countries
adjoining Germany had been making huge profits by selling their food and
other products to Germany, replacing their stores with material imported
from over seas. As part of the preparation for a long war, the Allies
blocked the renewal of neutral stocks of goods. The neutral countries
complained vigorously, but they soon cut down their trade with Germany
since they were no longer able to replenish their stock of food, rubber,
metals, and other supplies.

SUBMARINE WARFARE.--In 1914, when the war broke out, Germany is said
to have had but four seaworthy submarines. It is difficult to believe
that she had so few, but it is certain that she did not have so many as
either England, France, or Russia. German naval authorities were not
convinced of the value of the submarine in war.

However, about a month after the war began, a German submarine torpedoed
a British cruiser, and, within a few minutes, two others that had gone
to assist the first. Germany, now realizing the value of the new weapon,
began the construction of a numerous fleet of underwater boats, or
U-boats. But against war ships, properly defended by guns and other
means, they proved of little avail after all. Toward the end of the
year, Admiral von Tirpitz, head of the German navy, hinted at an
extension of the use of submarines to attack merchant ships.

Soon numbers of the submarines made their way to the waters surrounding
the British Isles, where they torpedoed merchant vessels taking food and
supplies to Great Britain and France. The vessels sunk were chiefly