LOSSES IN SHIPPING.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 63, Issue 169, 29 April 1943, Page 3

LOSSES IN SHIPPING.

AN AMERICAN STATEMENT.

WASHINGTON, April 27

The Navy Department, endeavouring to clear up conflicting reports of shipping losses, has issued a statement that on the “basis of known construction the Allies in 1942 suffered a net loss of something more than 1,000,000 tons gross of merchant shipping.” The explanation followed a conference at which the Secretary of the Navy (Colonel Frank Knox) and Senator Ralph Brewster threshed out the different conclusions of the Truman Committee and Colonel Knox. The statement said that the 1,000,000 tons loss took into account all losses —not submarine killings alone — bufe did not include all United Nations building because statistics were not available. It added that the records of the whole war showed .that the submarine was responsible for slightly more than 50 per cent, of the total sinkings.

“The submarine menace will be controlled within four to six months,'’ said the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Navy (Admiral E. J. King) speaking to the United States Chamber of Commerce at New York. He added: “Submarine sinkings, cannot be wiped out, but we will reduce the spread between the sinkings and buildings and continue on the upgrade.”

Admiral King said that the situation in the Pacific war much better than a year ago. The Japanese were confronted with a submarine menace in the Pacific similar to that confronting the United Nations in the Atlantic.

Admiral King said that the onward march of the Japanese had been stopped and added that enemy shinping in the Pacific had been badly Pinched. “We are going to pinch it even more.”