An item referred to the U.R.S. dated 26 August 1937 reporting that according to a note of Sir Herbert Russell writing that arming merchant ships and preparing their officers for defence purposes would result in a disaster. The fact that the British Admiralty wanted to repair this so-called weak link in sea power would make the efforts to make a submarine war more human fruitless. Herbert already did not believe that such a war could be human. Each submarine commanding officer would now immediately try to sink a British merchant ship caused by the preparations done in peacetime expecting that such a ship would be a potential danger for him
