The New York Times/1918/11/11/U-Boat Losses Incited Naval Revolt
U-BOAT LOSSES INCITED NAVAL REVOLT
Return of Undersea Fleet Revealed to Sailor That Destruction Had Been Hidden.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
LONDON, Nov. 10.—The Daily News's parliamentary correspondent writes that one fact has become known to the authorities here as to the origin of the Kiel revolt.
"According to our information," he writes, "it was the return of the U-boats, bringing with them the terrible news of submarine losses hitherto craftily concealed from the fleet and the German people, which stirred the sailors to revolt. Phantom U-boats which did not return becasue they were at the bottom of the sea have been reckoned as a fleet in being, and the cynicism and decit of the high command was its own Némesis. With the war lost, it was a torch to a powder barrel.
"The last adventure, it may be, of the German high seas fleet, in setting out to sea, is considered at the moment of writing to be susceptible of more explanations than one. If this were done at the instance of the German Government—for the officers must be on board if the fleet is sailing—then the story of the U-boats following to attack it would imply that the U-boats were manned by mutineers."