AIM OF NAZIS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20257, 27 May 1940, Page 11

AIM OF NAZIS

BLOCKADE OF BRITAIN CUTTING PETROL SUPPLY ATTACKS ON BRITAIN ALLIES’ GREAT STRENGTH —— (British Official Wireless.) Heed. 3 p.m. RUGBY, May 24. Recent developments on the battle front suggest the possibility of the enemy staging a renewed and more violent attack on shipping approaching the coasts of Britain. The enemy’s greatest hopes from such an attackhopes which have been so bitterly disappointed in the failure so far of the U-boat campaign and the small success achieved by the air bombing of ships at sea—would be to curtail British supplies of petrol ■ It is therefore, interesting to note that the strength of the Allies in the fuel transport position has been greatly increased as a result of Herr Hitler’s cwn actions. The German invasion of Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands by bringing almost the entire tanker fleets of those countries into the service of the Allied cause, has carried the total tanker tonnage at the Allies’ disposal to 6,226,000 gross tons—well over half the world total. The Times, after reviewing the new advantages gained by the Allies in respect of petrol transport, also points out that the aggregate tonnage of tankers over 1000 tons launched in . Britain alone in 1938 was over 230,000 ~ tons—a figure well in excess of the combined British, French, Norwegian .and Dutch losses in nine months of war. •