U-BOAT MENACE

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 94, 15 January 1943, Page 5

U-BOAT MENACE

Still Serious Says First Lord Of Admiralty ' LONDON, January 13. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. A. V. Alexander, speaking in London today about the U-boat war, said that attacks on our ships had been heavy in the past four months, but disclosed that we had taken a very heavy toll of the enemy. Mr. Alexander said “We have such a U-boat campaign to face that I do not want anybody to think we can rest on our oars. We want every ounce of drive and energy.” ■ ... . . ~ Some people bad been criticizing the ■Admiralty for not being air-minded enough, but in actual fact hey hud been the pioneers in the use o£ aircraft in sea warfare, Mr. Alexander said. 1certainly was not the navy s fault that the Royal Naval Air Service was sfopIpcd just after the last war. He described the work of the Fleet Air Arm as truly [magnificent, and said that even when [they were fighting with older and slowc. (types of aircraft their work had been [beyond reproach. The nation siioulo 'make everv possible effort to see that '.the Fleet Air Arm was equipped with most modern planes they could get. The minesweepers had done greatwork. and there was nothing in the last war to compare with what they had none in this. Thcv had swept, enough mine.-; to destroy all the British mercantile tonnage twice over if every mine had found its mark. British naval losses in this war had been big enough to make up a great fleet, but in spite of the fact that we had had to replace these vessels he could say today that we had a far larger naval strength than in 1939. He emphasized that these results had been achieved with almost 100,000 fewer shipyard workers than we had in the last war. Britain was also building thousands of landing craft for the army. There had been suggestions that wc ought to build faster merchant ships which could outpace U-boats. He said [this was being done to a certain extent, iliut pointed out that faster ships meant (bigger engines and less room for cargo.