Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, JULY 15, 1941. BATTLE OF THE SEAS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 191, 15 July 1941, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. TUESDAY, JULY 15, 1941. BATTLE OF THE SEAS

Somk heartening words on the shipping- position were spoken by Sir Ronald Cross, who is to assume the post of High Commissioner in Australia, at a function m Auckland during his brief visit to this country. Till recently he has been Minister for Shipping in the British Cabinet . and before receiving that appoint- . ineut was Minister for Economic Warfare. "I left office," he told his audience at the function, "in the belief, after sober contemplation, that wo could see our way through if everyone gave of his best, perhaps particularly in the shipyards." When he left huge American contracts had been placed and, with British shipbuilding, they should suffice to i see us through, he added, while emphasising the utmost importance of the dates of delivery. Sir Ronald did not attempt to disguise the seriousness of the blows the Nazis are striking at the heart of the Empire. His statement that shipping should be ranked as an additional Dominion places the matter in its best perspective—the loss or vital damage to that Dominion would be of the gravest consequence to the Empire. So in British yards a supreme effort is being made to turn out ships to defeat the Huns, and in the United States the President has called for the greatest output American yards are capable of giving to Democracy's cause. Mr Roosevelt has gone further by ' not permitting shipping under foreign flags to be idle while lying in American waters. Seventeen Italian ships, it has been reported from Washington, have been taken over because their owners "forfeited their rights by permitting sabotage." They are part of the 28 Axis ships taken into protective custody •some weeks ago. He has also assisted the diversion of British shipping to the Atlantic Ocean by putting United States vessels into the Pacific service, and in addition, as a Washington message has reported, Danish vessels have been requisitioned for the Australian, New Zealand, and Ear Eastern trades. At the same time the freighter service between the Pacific coast and the Red Sea is being established on a permanent basis. It is pouring war materials . into Egypt—the primary purpose of its inauguration—as a ship arrives daily. In this way are Britain and the United States by their combined efforts surmounting the crisis in shipbuilding. And if the Axis is striking hard against the Empire the latter is giving blow for blow. In the past few weeks operations against enemy ships have been singularly successful. The supply lines to Libya have been disorganised; the Coastal and Bomber Commands have been' sending enemy ships to the bot-1 torn, or else severely damaged j to port, and more and more Üboats are being destroyed. These j are gains which stimulate thc"i Empire in its light for freedom