A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 101, 23 January 1940, Page 6

A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Mine-Sweeping

DULL BUT DANGEROUS JOB Week by week the ranks of the British auxiliary mine-sweeping service—trawlers and drifters of the fishing fleets that in wartime sweep the channels — ure being increased as a result of the menace to British shores by the German magnetic mine. It is a far cry from the goldbraided Koya] Navy tradition io these battered craft and their slouching crews, who are carrying out one of the dullest, most dangerous and most important jobs of the war. But the fishing fleet, too. has a tradition. In recent weeks these weather-beaten sons of the sea have had to face in defenceless craft the full horrors of Nazi brutality in the shape of unrestricted air attacks, but they have never flinched from the task of keeping the seas clear for the shipping of all countries.

Recently a group of United States correspondents accompanied some of these small craft to gain first-hand knowledge of the task allotted to them. Writing about his experiences, one correspondent said: “It was a demonstration of sweeping with floats, kites and sweep-wires, a method generally agreed to be useless against the type of magnetic mine that the Germans now are believed to be dropping from planes and sowing from submarines. Second Line Of Defence “Even as our ships moved out of the harbour, their twin sisters were arriving, fish scales still in their holds, to join the trawler navy. Used to the task of handling winches and wires in snow and ice on decks slippery with fish slime, the fishermen of the North Sea and North Atlantic fleets are the second, line of Great Britain’s defence against the undersea menace. "It is logical to suppose that their fishing gear, perhaps with the addition of some method of exploding magnetic mines, can be used with little change to meet this latest. German threat.

“As the trawlers took station and began to sweep, there loomed in the distance a long line of neutral ships waiting for boarding officers of the contraband control to release them. Out to sea where the coast of Franco was hidden by driving scud plunged the ships of the anti-submarine patrol, going up and down on the search for enemy U-boats that never ceases. “And if anything more is needed to show that tho sea-going tradition of these islands again is mobilized in their defence, it was supplied as we went ashore, for the mine-sweepers never anchored.

“Instead, the skippers waved goodbye and spun their wheels again to head to sea. Tonight they are somewhere off Dungeness facing a rising gale in the pitch black darkness—tiny cogs in the immense machine that tho British call sea power.” No “Boiled Shirt” Discipline “In the brief time allowed we saw a new side to the Navy. Scottish skippers—“skipper" is a special commissioned rank in the British Navy reserved for these fishermen —whose accent is so thick that it is almost impossible to understand them, have little knowledge of discipline as it is known in the Navy that wears boiled shirts and epaulettes. “Their crews do not bother to lake cigarettes from their mouths or hands from their pockets when officers address them. Nevertheless, the regular and reserve officers who command these men have nothing but praise for their spirit and morale. In the last war an average of 1.2 of these ships were lost every day with at least half the crews. Even today this particular squadron already has lost a ship to a German mine.

The correspondent concluded by remarking that the technique o£ sweeping was not hard to understand. It was not a particularly complicated operation, and the gear was comparatively simple. But the process had to be repeated day after day in every kind of dirty weather and In horrible discomfort with always the prospect of death lurking in every wave. Czechs Whisper News

Prague, once one of the most "news-paper-conscious" capitals in the world, is gradually giving up reading the daily Press. The Czechs cannot rely on the news printed, so instead of taking an average of three papers a family, us formerly, they prefer to keep iu touch with the world through foreign broadcasts. A correspondent describes how news over the air is passed from lip to lip. This whispered service is moro difficult to detect than an illegal newssheet and helps to keep the people united. Czechs are drinking and smoking less. Alcohol and tobacco are now subject to a 20 per cent, war tax. The secret organization which directs the Silent Opposition does not fail to remind people that every pint of beer drunk and every cigarette smoked, is helping the oppressor to win the war. Finnish Seaport Of Oulu

Oulu, which the Russians have frequently bombed, is a senport of Finland on the Gulf of Bothnia, and is linked by rail to Helsinki. It is about the same size ns Wanganui with a like population of about 25,000. It is believed that supplies from Sweden and from other countries via Sweden are being landed at Oulu and thence railed to Helsinki. Against air attacks this is practically defenceless. Its exports are chiefly timber, tar, pitch, fish, butter and leather, and its imports colonial produce, coal, iron, hides and salt. Rich Colonies

In addition to foodstuffs her colonics provide France with 93 per cent, of natural phosphates, 70 per cent, of pure oils, 54 per cent, of tobacco, and large amounts of oilnuts and seeds; she is mainly dependent on outside sources for rubber, sulphur, tea and coffee, and also for copper, tin, mangatiese, jute, cotton, wool, wood pulp, maize, olive oil and lineu. France gets her copper from Belgium aud the United States; lead from Spain, Belgium, and Mexico; zine from Belgium and Norway; tin from Holland and sulphur from America.

On the other hand, France is producer of certain commodities, either not available in the British Empire at all or inaccessible to British markets, such as bauxite, Alsatian potash. North African rock phosphate, Moroccan molybdenum, and Algerian antimony. Thus the two nations can give each other valuable support in the economic field.

With her war chest full, territory intact and industries mobilized. France, economically Hie best balanced of all the industrial countries of Europe, alongside of Britain can face a major war of long duration confident of ultimate success.