miles--and it's as hard to find them as it would be to find whales.
The simple truth is we are in a dangerous plight. If they could
stop this submarine warfare, the war would pretty quickly be won,
for the Germans are in a far worse plight for food and materials
and they are getting much the worst of it on land. The war would be
won this summer or autumn if the submarine could be put out of
business. If it isn't, the Germans may use this success to keep
their spirits up and go on till next year.

We (the United States) have about 40 destroyers. We are sending
over 6! I'm doing my best to persuade the Government at Washington
to send every one we have. But, since the British conceal the facts
from their own press and the people and from all the world, the
full pressure of the situation is hard to exert on Washington. Our
Admiral (Sims) and I are trying our best, and we are spending
enough on cables to build a destroyer. All this, you must, of
course, regard as a dark secret; but it's a devilish black secret.

I don't mean that there's any danger of losing the war. Even if the
British armies have to have their food cut down and people here go
hungry, they'll win; but the winning may be a long time off.
Nothing but their continued success can keep the Germans going.
Their people are war-weary and hungry. Austria is knocked out and
is starving. Turkey is done up but can go on living on nothing,
but not fighting much more. When peace comes, there'll be a general
famine, on the continent at least, and no ships to haul food. This
side of the world will have to start life all over again--with
insufficient men to carry things on and innumerable maimed men
who'll have (more or less) to be cared for. The horror of the whole
thing nobody realizes. We've all got used to it here; and nobody
clearly remembers just what the world was like in peace times;
those times were so far away. All this I write not to fill you with
horrors but to prove that I speak the literal truth when I say that
it seems a hundred years since I had before heard from you.

Just how all this affects a man, no man can accurately tell. Of how
much use I'll be when I can get home, I don't know. Sometimes I
think that I shall be of vastly greater use than ever. Plans and
publishing ambitions