TRIBUTE BY FIRST LORD

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 138, 7 March 1941, Page 7

TRIBUTE BY FIRST LORD

New Zealand Cruisers THE SURFACE RAIDER MENACE (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, March 5. In his speech in the House of Commons, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Alexander, said New Zealand cruisers and Australian cruisers and destroyers had participated with great distinction and success in the operations in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, in addition to protecting important trade and military convoys.

“I think the names of the warships Achilles, Leander, Sydney, Australia, Perth, and Hobart will in history long be bound up with the general story of achievement in the Royal Navy,” he said. x.

Speaking of the menace of surface raiders, Mr. Alexander said: “We are exercising all the ingenuity within the limits of our resources to frustrate tl]is form of attack," he said. “As those resources grow, so will the raiders’ opportunities become fewer. During the past few months our ships have gained contact with a number of raiders. Sometimes’ action has been broken off by the enemy, but he did not get away without suffering damage. The Right Perspective.

“In fact,” he said, “not every raider met with has. lived to raid another day, though I am not going to’ say anything in public. There have been one or two occasions when a raider has encountered a convoy with inferior protection and inflicted relatively heavy loss, though nothing like up to the claims of the enemy. To see these episodes in the right perspective it must be remembered that for every .convoy thus attacked scores come through without molestation, and that great armies, with very large equipment, have been successfully shephered by 'the Navy to the Middle East without the loss of a single ship.” The Admiralty, continued Mr. Alexander, had never relaxed its constant attack’on U-boats. With expansion of the reconnaissance forces of the Coastal Command the U-boat commanders would find the watch from above more difficult to avoid. Escorts were increasing, providing greater protection for convoys, and to these advantages would .be added all the improvements in anti-submarine tactics which experience and experiment suggested. “Let me say that though it is not our policy to make regular statements as to U-boat sinkings,” he said, “we will continue to inflict loss upon the enemy submarine flotillas. Defence weapons provided to merchant ships are being increased.and improved, specially as regards anti-aircraft armament, and the resolute use of guns has often preserved them from danger. In December there were three cases when merchantmen fought duels with submarines and had the best of the encounter, while up to the present 27 aeroplanes which have attempted to bomb merchantmen have been brought down by their fire. Fifteen others have probably been destroyed.” Merchant Sinkings.

Regarding merchant sinkings and replacements, Mr. Alexander said the Germans claimed In official communiques about double the total of actual losses, even including loss by mine, about which it was unlikely the enemy would hove knowledge. By new construction, chartering and capture, more than two-thirds of the British tonnage lost had been replaced. Moreover, Britain had abundant chartering of ships of States overrun by the enemy, some of which had not previously been used in the wide oceans. A great deal of salvage had been done, and up to December’ 31 over a million tons had been salved.

Mr. Alexander revealed that the United States destroyers, “which in our hour of greatest need they handed over to us,” were in service, and that some had already delivered attacks against enemy submarines. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty, Sir Victor Warrender/said that thousands of ships were now carrying dlose-range anti-aircraft armament. The Admiralty was equipping vessels as fast as possible. Defending the use of oil instead of coal, he said that the Battle of the River Plate would not have been a British victory if the cruisers had not been using oil fuel.