UNRESTRICTED PIRACY

AMSTERDAM, WEDNESDAY. The following telegram has been received from Berlin: The main committee of the Reichstag met here this morning. The deliberations, at which Dr. Helfferich, Admiral von Capelie, Count von Roedern, and Dr. Zimmermann were present, were at first confidential. The Foreign Secretary discussed at length the situation as regards the United States, following the rupture of diplomatic relations, and amid cheers expressed his firm confidence that Germany, by use of her U-boat weapon, would attain the aim she has set before her. The Secretary of State for the Navy, in a long speech, which was greeted with loud cheers, affirmed that the expectations which the navy had placed on unrestricted U-boat warfare had been not only realised but surpassed. He continued: In view of the systematic concealment in which the British Press especially has been indulging at the instigation of its Government with regard to the number of ships sunk, it is difficult to give definite figures. The figures of tonnage sunk published recently in a large Berlin newspaper are not correct. It would be well to discontinue such summary compilations until official data are at hand, as they are used by our enemies to carry on an agitation against us and to disparage the great successes of our U-boat war. Although a number of submarines, in view of their large radius of action and their instructions, have not yet returned to their bases from their cruise, I can assure the committee that the results achieved have surpassed the expectations entertained by the navy. It is very satisfactory that there is no reason to reckon with the loss of even one boat since the beginning of unrestricted U-boat war. The defensive measures, of which so much fuss has been made in the British Press and Parliament, have remained within normal limits, according to the reports of U-boats that have returned. On the North Sea there is practically no shipping. Neutral shipping is clearly as good as stopped. The Secretary of State for the Interior referred to the great falling off in the supply of Great Britain with indispensable requisites, such as foodstuffs and pit props, and in the supply of coal to Allies and neutrals by Great Britain. The decrease in December, 1916, as compared with December, 1915, was, he said, considerably greater than the average decrease for the entire year 1916 as compared with 1915. Figures showed that the provisioning of Great Britain had closely approached the danger point. – Reuter.