Importance and Efficiency of Blockade

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 106, 6 May 1941, Page 4

Importance and Efficiency of Blockade

NAZI SHIPS DARE NOT SAIL ATLANTIC (British Official Wireless.) Received Monday, 9.20 p.m. RUGBY, May 4. The importance and efficiency of the British blockade was stressed by the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Economic Warfare in a speech at Birmingham. “Because Hitler is temporarily master of most of Europe,” Mr. P. Wilmot said, “some people imagine that he has now access to vast unlimited supplies which will enable him to carry on the war indefinitely. They either forget the blockade or attempt to argue that it no longer counts. Let me disillusion them. “Hitler eonstrols the western seaboard of Europe from Narvick to Biarritz, but from the point of view of supplies it avails him nothing, for no German ship dare sail the surface of the Atlantic to bring him goods from the Americas. If the conquered countries are to be of use to him, Hitler must free them, organise their industries and adapt their transport systems. This means sending valuable stocks of food, raw materials and machinery which Germany can ill afford to spare. “Immediately on occupation the Germans looted everything of value in the conquered countries and so made up their many deficiencies. Now they grudgingly have to return some spoils. A conquered country is a liability as well as an asset. “Afore and more the Germans are going to feel the pinch but whatever shortages there may be in Germany they will not be felt by the army first. It is the civilians who will have to bear the brunt of want and it may well be that under the strain they may break as they did in 1918 irrespective of the victories of German arms. That is why blockade must be maintained.