Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 1941. THE ROYAL NAVY'S PART.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 124, 7 March 1941, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 1941. THE ROYAL NAVY'S PART.

The review of the work of the | Royal Navy which the First Lord of the Admiralty gave on introducing the Naval Estimates was most reassuring. He stated plainly that despite the losses suffered the Fleet is now stronger than it was at the outbreak of the and the building programme is still being carried out with energy. This statement gains in importance when the work the Navy has already performed is considered, for the report of Mr Alexander’s speech does not tell all the story. But even confining his statement to the Mediterranean* the Minister was able to point to a record that will long live in history. Ignoring, like his fellow-aggressor, the claims of other nations, Mussolini has long described the Mediterranean as a purely Italian sea, but the Royal Navy quickly showed that his -assertion was merely empty boasting. The bottling up of the Italian Navy, gratifying as it would be for itself as proof of British supremacy on the sea, played a vital part in aiding General Wavell’s brilliant and sustained series of military victories in Libya. Not only was the enemy unable to send reinforcements for his hard-pressed army, but the British forces were assured of adequate supplies that made the rapid advance possible. v To ensure the carriage of water and other supplies for the onwardpressing troops, to maintain the long lines of communication, to give essential help in transporting “embarrassingly large' numbers of Italian prisoners,” and to convey to the Mediterranean scene of action requisite reinforcements, all these tasks were performed with splendid efficiency. So were the trade-protection duties, carried out by destroyers, corvettes and sloops in convoying a host of merchant vessels, in spite of frantic attempts by the enemy to repeat the earlier obstruction that inflicted naval loss. On the coast of East Africa also the Navy has co-operated with the land forces, with the same successful result. The latest statement by the First Lord breathes firm confidence in the Navy’s future part in the war. It will lend a capable hand in the defence of the British Isles against invasion, should Hitler be driven, by failures elsewhere, to launch his “army of the doomed” at this bastion of the democracy he hates and affects to despise.