CONVOY CONFERENCE

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 156, 30 December 1940, Page 8

CONVOY CONFERENCE

, THE KING IN ATTENDANCE

(British Official Wireless.) (Received December 30, 1.15 p.m.)

LONDON, December 29

EXPERTS KILLED

! JAPANESE AIR CRASH

LONDON, December 29,

The King personally has assured himself of the great care with which the arrangements for convoys are worked out by the naval authorities. He recently visited a port for this purpose, and he attended one of the informal conferences at which the captains of merchantmen and escorting warships meet to discuss their problems before leaving.

The skippers and the naval personnel were seated together, around a table receiving instructions from a naval captain when the King walked into the room accompanied by the Com-mander-in-Chief of the port.

At the conferences, which are always held a few hours before the convoy sails, the position each ship shall take is decided, as well as the methods to be adopted in case of attack either by surface raider, U-boat, or aircraft. The King was shown on a chart the position each ship would take and also where the escorting warships would be positioned, and he listened to the discussions at the conference.

Afterwards his Majesty met the skippers and talked with them individually. Several of the skippers were from allied countries. The commodore of this convoy was a Dutchman, and the King had a long talk with him.

Today 13 Japanese air experts were killed when a new aeroplane undergoing its trials crashed. All the 13 men killed were members of the Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau.