IF WAR CAME.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 106, 7 May 1938, Page 15

IF WAR CAME.

BRITAIN WOULD BE READY.

LOOKING TO FOOD SUPPLIES.

LONDON. Plans to safeguard Britain's food supplies in war time, on which Admiralty «-\ perls have been working for the last two yearn, have now been completed. Although details are kept secret, wellinformed naval sources reveal that the convoy system again will be introduced to protect incoming food shipments. Until recently the British Admiralty is reported to have opposed the adoption of the convoy system immediately after the outbreak of war owing to the lon«delays involved. Instead they proposed to divert merchant shipping fruin the ©rdinarv routes in the hope of fooling enemy raiders thereby. In view of the speed-up in British naval rearmament, and the consequent increase in the number of cruisers, destroyers and anti-submarine vessels available, this policy has been substantially modified. According to present plans, oil tankers and ehips with particularly valuable cargoes will be conveyed through danger zanaa ia the event of war, it is disclosed. Armed Merchant Ships. • Defence against enemy aircraft at sea will be provided by escort vessels of the new Bittern class, armed entirely with high angle 4in guns, and by old cruisers rearmed with 10 to 12 of those weapons. Further, all mercha-nt ships above a certain tonnage will be armed with heavy, qnick-firing guna, machine guns and paravanes. Instruction in the use of this defensive equipment already has been given to several hundred mercliant navy officers, and it ie estimated that in the near future the bulk of the officer personnel in the merchant navy will have received ■uch training. v Since early 1936 experts of the plans division of the British Admiralty have been working on the war food protection Scheme. Normally, this division is administered l>y a director, a deputy-director and an assistant director, but in recent months three more assistant directors have been appointed. Twelve other naval and marine officers are on the permanent staff, while several additional officers have been attached to the division for special duty. They include Paymaster Rear-Admiral Sir Eldon Mainsty, who wae largely responsible for the convoy system in 1917. He was recalled from retirement more than a year ago to assist in drawing up the food defence plana.