U.S.A. MERCHANT SHIPS

Grey River Argus, 18 November 1941, Page 5

U.S.A. MERCHANT SHIPS

ARMING TO BEGIN With 200 Vessels [Aust. & N.Z. Cable Assn.] WASHINGTON, November 16. United States Navy officials said it is proposed immediately to arm 201) merchantmen, all of which were built since 1927, with special decks for gun-mountings. The United States will be able to arm 1,600 ships for duty in the Atlantic eventually. Each ship will have a specially-trained gun-crew of 20 men from the Navy. It is learned from a' high naval source that the expansion of convoy operations envisions an extension of naval and air patrols and escorts, all the way across the Atlantic, with the establishment of United States bases in the British Isles, or the joint use with Britain or bases already established. Other ships contemplated involve American convoys through theStraits of Gibraltar to Britain’s Mediterranean ports, thus reducing the time taken in the delivery of material to Egypt. 8.0.W. RUGBY, November 15. Mr Arthur Greenwood, Minister without portfolio speaking on the oc-casion-of “Warships Week” in Staffordshire, described .the revision of the -United States Neutrality Act as an event of tremendous importance, sounding the death knell of Hitler’s already waning hopes of winning the Battle of the Atlantic. “Hitler knows beyond all doubt that Germany cannot possibly win that battle, and on the contrary, must lose it. Finally and irretrievably,” he said, • “he knows that America will not only make the tools for a democratic victory, but that she is going to deliver them where they can best be used to smash aggressors. .America has an enormous mercantile navy. When plans for its expansion have been carried through it will be the largest mercantile marine in the world,' and it is going to be used to help to bring about the destruct’on of Hitler and all that Hitlerism stands for. . “It would be easy to imagine Hitler’s arrogant boasts were Germany able to secure the backing of such vast carrying resources and of the enormous’ supplies which American ships will convex It would be easy tc imagine his spiteful gibes at Britain, had the American Congress withheld this vital assistance from the freedom-loving nations by refusing steadfastly to amend the Neutrality Act. It really is easy to imagine hew savagely he will gnash his teeth in arrogant fury in the knowledge that the delivery lines of America’s war output are to run direct across the oceans to the free fighting nations, and that aeroplanes, guns, ' tanks, food and other war essentials will be carried in ever-growing quantities in American shins and unloaded in Britain and Russia' of wherever else they are required for effective service. Russia’s epic resistance and America’s cordial association with the fighting democracies cannot but produce a serious shock to the already strained morale of the German people. For us, let us see to it that they are but an incentive to a still greater war effort.”