MERCHANT MARINE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 8 April 1929, Page 5

MERCHANT MARINE.

WAR) SERVICES RECALLED. PRINCE OF WALES PAYS TRIBUTE (British Official Wireless.j RUGBY, April a. The Prince of Wales, wJio is a master of tlie merchant navy and nsmng neets, mis vvriten a foreword to tne tail'd ana nnal volume of Sir Archibald Hlira’s work, “Tlie Merchant Navy.” In this tne Prince pays a magnificent tribute to the part played by tlie mercantile marine during the war. “Let us who are land dwellers not mince words over this tiling,”, he says. “It is the glory ot our merchant navy, and will be so acclaimed by generations to come, that they faced without hesitation tremendous odds ana tlie frequent hazard of death undaunted in spirit to the bitter end. Let us not forget also that had it been otherwise tins country of ours must have perished.” The Prince recalls that in the first stage of the war the British seamen recognised that nothing more was being asked of him than to accept the usual hazards of a naval conflict. With the arrival on the scene of the submarine, and the indiscriminate use of mines, the whole position for the merchant seaman was changed. He found himself faced by hazards and perils such as he had never before experienced, or indeed had ever conceived as possible. With the intensification of the enemy campaign the British sailor saw himself directly involved in the whole frightful mechanism of a war grimness reached its climax in the case of unrestricted submarine attack. Special mention is made of the auxiliary patrol which in its complete development was manned by nearly 50,W0 officers and men. Describing it as one of the most striking, and certainly one of the most successful of the many pieces of wartime improvisations which history will place to tlie credit of the British nation, the Prince observes :- — “Here was indeed a medley of small vessels —trawlers fresh from our fishing grounds, drifters, whalers, paddle steamers so familiar to channel excursionists, steam yachts, motor launches and motor boats. Their _ hazardous duties were as varied as their types. In their long hours of patrol they watched for and hunted the German submarines, searched for and dragged for mines, fought hostile aircraft, controlled and examined millions of tons of the shipP'ing navigating the narrow seas, and in many other ways, splendidly seconded the efforts of the Grand Fleet. Varied indeed these craft were in type, but the crews were animated by one heart and one spirit.”