MORE SHIPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 50, 28 February 1940, Page 7

MORE SHIPS.

FIVE BEING BUILT.

Scapa Flow No Longer Used By Home Fleet.

NEUTRALS AMAZ E FIRST LORD.

British Official Wireless.

(Received 12.30 p.m.)

RUGBY, February 27.

One of the most extraordinary things I have ever known in mv experience is the way in which German illegalities, atrocities and brutalities are coming to be accepted as if they were part of the ordinary day to day conditions of war," said Mr. Churchill in the House of Lommons.

The neutral Press makes more fuss if I make a speech tellin S them what is their duty, than they do when hundreds of their ships are sunk and more than 1000 of their sailors are drowned— murdered I must call it—on the open

"For my part I must say without hesitation that in the interpretation of the rules and conventions affecting neutrals, humanity rather than legal pedantry be our guide, and, judging by the Altmarck episode, this seems to be an opinion not only of the British nation, but of the civilised world."

Mr. Churchill revealed that in a short time the Fleet would be reinforced by five modern battleships of the Kin« George V. class. ~

Referring to the capacity of the new ships which are being built to stand up to air bomb and underwater explosives, he said: "When the 31,000-ton battleship Barham was hit by a torpedo, although she is an old ship she stood up well to the heavy blow and was able to proceed under her own steam. She will soon be repaired and ready for sea.

Again, when in the early part of December H.M.S. Nelson, a more modern ship but still 15 years old, was damaged by a magnetic mine, she was able to return to harbour under her own steam. She too will soon be rejoining the Fleet. Apart from the Royal Oak and the Courageous, no other large ships have been damaged or sunk since the outbreak of war.

♦Iγ. Churchill stated that Britain had lost 63,000 tons of warships since the outbreak of war, or about half the losses sustained in the same period in the last war.

Building to Capacity. The First Lord regretted that it was not expedient to give the House precise facts and figures of the proposed strength and cost of the Xavy in the coming year. It was physically impossible to make exact estimates for contingencies which were constantly changing.

"U-boats will be increasingly built as the summer progresses. We expect to meet them with large new craft specially adapted to their destruction. We shall be building all summer at extreme capacity, subject only to undertaking a large increase in merchant shipbuilding.

"We must clearly expect attacks against our sea power, whereby we live —and on which all depends—on a scale far greater than anything we have eo far beaten back.

"After the sinking of the Royal Oak we have not had the use of Scapa Flow, which was our best strategic base and which would save our ships much unnecessary steaming across dangerous waters.

"When people wonder that we are able to move so freely about dangerous seas and move great masses of men and material, let them recognise that the 'Home Fleet is the supreme and final guarantee.

"The Straits of Dover are closed and sealed. Strongly supported by a cordon firm Scotland to Greenland, it maintains the northern -patrol, but tliat is 1000 miles, and it is not surprising that a proportion of enemy shins have niaiij'gt'd to run tlie gauntlet."