ENEMY TRANSPORT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 22, 27 January 1944, Page 5

ENEMY TRANSPORT

POST-WAR CONTROL NEEDED Rec 11 a.m. WASHINGTON, Jan. 26J The Axis Powers should not be permitted any overseas trade in their own vessels for a period of years after the war, said Admiral E. S. Land, head of the U.S. Maritime Commission, when testifying before the Appropriations Committee. He added that the proper control of the enemy's merchant marine operations was just as necessary to future peace as the disarming of our enemies. He pointed out that "everything our little yellow enemies built during the last ten years is a combatant ship—• every tanker, every cargo ship or other type has become a combatant ship. If you want peace in the world for the next generation you must put the screws on these boys. "Let them run river, harbour, and coastal shipping, but don't let them do any flying or have a trans-oceanic merchant marine." . Admiral Land forecast a United States merchant fleet of from 20,000,000 to 40,000,000 tons after the war and warned that "if it was frittered away, as it was after the last war, blood is on our own hands."

Admiral Land said that completed ships were now being delivered at the rate of five a day, and would shortly reach six a day. On present indications the construction in 1944 will be 16,000,000 tons of cargo ships and 6,000,000 tons for the navy and other armed forces. Admiral Land said that submarine losses still remained serious owing to the submarines operating singly rather than in wolf packs.