NAVAL PROBLEMS

Evening Star, Issue 23724, 4 November 1940, Page 7

NAVAL PROBLEMS

WAR AGAINST U-BOATS BRITAIN GRATEFUL FOR AMERICAS DESTROYERS MR ALEXANDER DISCUSSES THE NAZI " IDEAL" (British Official Wireless.) Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright RUGBY, November 3. (Received November. 4, at J 1.30 a.m.)] In the course of • his broadcast, the First Lord of the Admiralty (Mr A. V 4 Alexander) gave a summary of the British position as it appeared since ha last spoke to the Empire. There were many difficulties and dangers ahead,) he said, and no responsible person d«-i sired to under-estimate them. Not th« least was the new intensified threat which followed the defection of the French army from the acquisition byj the enemy of naval and air bases for an attack on shipping, the recent losses in which, Mr Alexander said, had been heavy.

Speaking of the naval problems affecting these attacks, .Mr Alexander said: “ I make no promises And no prophecies. I merely say the Admiralty; has been overhauling every aspect of the problem of grappling with the enemy attacks by sea and air, testing every idea and method brought forward for consideration, Germany has presented the Navy with many novel problems at sea in this war, including the magnetic mine. We have tackled and solved each in turn, and we shaUi equally do our best against the intensified U-boat campaign. In this war against the mercantile marine 1 think often of Nelson’s incessant cry for * more fighters.’ How often in the past! months have I heard my professional advisers cry ‘ more destroyers,’ and how welcome have, been the 50 destroyers which America sent us, and for which, as head of the Navy, I tender our sincere and grateful thanks. . I shall be equally thankful, for any more that can bo spared.” Mr Alexander referred to Britain’s growing military strength. The Regular Army, he said, had been re-equipped-and reorganised, and, together with the great additional forces, was now “ straining at the leash, full of confidence in its ability to give a good account of itaelf.”

“Let me also mention,” he said, “the immense encouragements we receive from the real understanding of our trials and pur cause and the vast material aid which reaches us from, the United States. We have not failed, to remark on this side the significance of the fact that .in the Presidential election, ,now drawing to a close, and which appears to ns over here to be of a singularly hard-fought character, the issue of aid for this country has; by the common consent of both parties, been placed completely above that battle and accepted as a common ground. We shall not easily forget that this has been so.” Mr Alexander addressed a word to “ those who hold with the idea of a. negotiated peace,” and bade them contemplate the current events in France and. the continuous humiliation the common enemy seeks to impose on Marshal Petain and the French Empire. The attack upon • Greece demonstrated again that in the totalitarian creed nothing gave the right to,a national existence save the size of armed strength, ■aid Mr Alexander, who added: “If a nation is large and has thousands of aeroplanes, tanks', and guns, and no morals or scruples, then it may exist. But a nation with culture, tradition, and a tong civilisation which has given some of the greatest ideas from which 7 the world has benefited, desires to live at peace with its neighbours and cultivate the arts of peace. None of these things avails a small country in the eyes of the totalitarian, in whose debased, abnormal, and immoral mentality guns, tanks, aeroplanes, and bomba in huge numbers and large size alone give the right to live, Their idea! is that of the dinosaur—a huge body with a tiny head'and almost no brain. Well, dinosaurs have vanished from the earth.” , »

GREAT FRENCH SCIENTIST * ARRESTER BY VICHY fifVERHHEHT LONDON,' November 9. (Received November 4, at 1.20 p,ra.>" The French newspaper * France. 1 reporting two acts by the Vichy Government, reveals the arrest of Professor Paul Langeviri, one of the greatest French scientists and collaborator of ' Madame Curie, arid that the president of th.e French Committle of the Union of Anti-Fascism is now in gaol. The appointment of. M. Fernand Debrinon at delegate of France in Paris with the rank of ambassador is also revealed. The newspaper says that M. Debrinon founded the French-German Committee. He is a close friend of Herr Ahretz, the German Ambassador t* Paris. .... T f, TRIAL 0F NEHRU AUWEI BCHitlt TI PUEAI DELHI, November (Received November 4, at 1 p.ra.) The charges against Pandit Nelint are based on three speeches in which be allegedly attempted to infuse a spirit of defiance among uneducated villagers. Pandit Nehru refused to plead when the trial war opened.