SHIPBUILDING VITAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 82, 7 April 1941, Page 6

SHIPBUILDING VITAL

SIR ARTHUR SALTER'S VISIT TO AMERICA

AERIAL DANGER

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.)

WASHINGTON. April 5,

Sir Arthur Salter, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Shipping, who has arrived from England, said to the Press: "The Battle of the Atlantic can be won in the shipyards of America." He said that Britain had so far managed to replace most of her shipping losses, but needed more cargo vessels to win, because the battle was now fully engaged.

Sir Arthur, who has come to America to carry out the same task as was entrusted to him in the World War, said: "Then as now, it looks as if the issue of the war will depend on our ability to maintain our overseas supply."

He revealed that the German longrange planes were presenting relatively a more serious problem than the submarines. He said that Britain at present had a sufficient tonnage to carry through 1941 witnout impairment of her war efforts and Germany's destruction of British tonnage had not exceeded the combined replacement capacity of Britain and the United States.

Sir Arthur said Britain's present I rate of shipbuilding was estimated at 1,000.000 tons a year. He believed the United States could reach 4,000,000 tons a year by 1942. Asked whether he would discuss convoys here, he said: "Only if the American Government raises the point." j