ATLANTIC BATTLE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20567, 29 May 1941, Page 7

ATLANTIC BATTLE

TOLL OF RAIDERS SHIPS OF THE ALLIES ECLIPSING PRODUCTION PROTECTION INTENDED (Reed. May 29, 9 a.m.) WASHINGTON, May 28. “The Battle of the Atlantic now extends from the icy waters of the North Pole to the frozen continent of the Antarctic. Throughout this huge area there have been sinkings of merchant ships in alarming and increasing numbers by Nazi raiders or submarines,” stated President Roosevelt during his broadcast address last evening. “The blunt truth is, and I reveal this with the full knowledge of the British Government, that the present rate of Nazi sinkings of merchant ships is more than three times as high as the capacity of the British shipyards to replace them. It is more than twice the combined British and American output of merchant ships.

‘To-day we can answer this peril by two simultaneous measures. Firstly, by speeding up and increasing our great shipbuilding programme. Secondly, by helping to cut down the losses on the high seas and attacks on shipping off our very shores. ‘We are determined to protect the present actual military danger to the Americas. That danger has recently been heavily underlined by the presence in Western Hemisphere waters of Nazi battleships of great striking power. - Northerly Route “Most supplies for Britain go by the northerly route, which comes close to Greenland and Iceland. Germany’s heaviest attack is on that route. Nazi occupation of Iceland or bases of Greenland would bring the war close to our continental shores, because they are stepping stones to Labrador, Newfoundland. Nova Scotia and the northern United States, including the great industrial centres of the north-east and the Middle West. “Equally the Azores and Cape Verde Islands, if occupied or controlled by Germany, would directly endanger the freedom of the Atlantic and our own physical safety. Under German domination they would become bases for submarines, warships, and aeroplanes raiding waters which Jie immediately off our own-coast and attacking shipping in the South Atlantic. They would provide a springboard for an actual attack against the integrity and independence of Brazil and her neighbouring republics.”