Correctness of Figures On Shipping Losses

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 102, 1 May 1941, Page 7

Correctness of Figures On Shipping Losses

NEUTRAL PAPER’S TIMELY COMMENT (British Official Wireless.) Received Wednesday, 9.20 p.m. RUGBY, April 29. The reliance placed in neutral countries on British operational figures as against those given by Dr. Goebbels to Germany's masses is well illustrated by comment from the Swedish newspaper NU on British shipping losses. The old and well-known firm of Lloyds, declares NU, confirms the British figures. “If the British figures are incorrect then Lloyds have doviated from their century-old tradition. 1 * Referring to British shipping losses for 1916-17, NU declares that the figures of the two belligerents at that time differed to approximately the same extent as now, and it has since been proved which figures were inaccurate during the last war. NU produces » table showing that as time went on the German figures were increasingly inaccurate. In 1918 the Germans reported that about 600,000 tons were sunk monthly, while actually the figure was about 300,000. Had the German figures been correct in the last war Britain s fate would have been sealed by the beginning of 1918, but in actual fact the effectiveness of mines and submarines no less that American capacity to produce new' vessels was greater thnr the Germans lind calculated.