HOLLOW BOAST.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 229, 26 August 1940, Page 8

HOLLOW BOAST.

BLOCKADE OF BRITAIN. GREAT TRADE CONTINUES. Received August 26, 1.5 p.m, LONDON, Aug. 25. “Britain embarks on the second year of the war with her importing capacity sufficient to meet all essential needs, but vve shad continue to require vast quantities of iron ore, pig iron, steel, and other metals and raw materials upon which the war effort depends.” stated the Minister of Supply (Mr R. H. Cross) in a broadcast. “We have built up stocks and imported staple foodstuffs which now stand at higher levels than at the beginning of the war —this at ;a. moment when our own harvest has /not vet been brought in and the Germans claim to be blockadading us effectively. “The importation of 4-J million tons of essential commodities during July leaves me verv well satisfied. We lost up to the middle of August just under I. gross tons from all causes and gained just over two million. The best comment on the German proclamation of the total blockade of Britain is that the Navy has escorted over 33,000 ships since the outbreak of the war and continues successfully to provide escorts. “We are not only concerned with imports. Exports are mir life and blood. The amount of shipping which left, Britain with cargo for America during July, when warfare was most active, was 25 per cent, higher than the monthly average from January to April. “Our shipping resources are great, but cannot be too great to meet the needs of the future. We frankly welcome all means of increasing our shipping by the aid of shipyards in the Dominions and elsewhere.”