SHIPPING LOSS MORE THAN MADE UP

Manawatu Times, Volume 65, Issue 228, 26 September 1940, Page 8

SHIPPING LOSS MORE THAN MADE UP

BRITAIN’S POSITION

(British Official Wireless) (Received 25, 12.45 p.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 24.

The Minister of Shipping, Mr. Ronald Cross, in reviewing the year’s war effort, stated to-day that British merchant unceasingly sailed the oceans of the world. “Liable to attack throughout by submarine, raider, mining, aircraft, and more recently by E-boat, one might well have supposed that our position would be worse than that of the countries whose ships have bolted to safety,” the Minister said, “but the fact is that we have lost by enemy action only about one-eighth of our pre-war merchant fleet. We have made up and more than made up thife and every other loss. Captures, new building, and transfers from foreign flags have brought us reinforcements in excess of our losses. “The overseas supply position, and consequently the shipping position, has taken on a wholly different appearance,” Mr. Cross added. ‘Timber, steels, and ferro alloys, which formerly came from Scandinavia, must now be carried from North America. Iron ore, formerly derived from Sweden, Norway, and France, is fetched to-day from more distant sources. Australia and New Zealand dairy produce takes the place of Danish and Dutch supplies. The workshops of the United States are turning out engineering products which, in the past, came from Belgium. Moreover, ships bearing the products of India and the Far East are no longer ordinarily routed through the Mediterranean, and the longer voyage round the Cape means that a larger number of ships are required to bring the equivalent cargoes.

“The scale of our shipping needs, therefore, has been greatly augmented, but it is also a fact that the fortunes of war have brought us augmented shipping resources on a commensurate scale. Germany, by her inexcusable assaults on Poland, Denmark, Norway, Holland, and Belgium, put out of employment great quantities of tonnage which formerly served the commercial needs of those peaceful lands. The greater part of this tonnage now carries cargoes for the Allied cause and compensates for the greater distances many supplies must now be carried.”

Mr. Cross spoke of the lino achievements of the merchant service, which he described as the lifeline of the British peoples in bringing cargoes from all over the world to British ports. Mr. Cross explained that whatever plans the Government made would be of no use unless the merchant fleet was able to carry out its duties.

“ It is a fact beyond dispute that the whole of our war effort, indeed our very existence, depends on the ships and the men who work them. Consequently the vital question is: How far have the shipping losses been replaced ?“ The losses sustained by enemy action were published for the world to know, but as a result of new buildings and purchases, btft mostly because of captures from the Germans and Italians, there was more shipping flying the British flag now than when the war started. In addition, there were large numbers of neutral ships working for Britain.