Mt. Benger Mail Be Just and Fear Not. BRITAIN’S SHIPPING LOSSES

Mt Benger Mail, 16 October 1940, Page 3

Mt. Benger Mail Be Just and Fear Not. BRITAIN’S SHIPPING LOSSES

The British Government’s action in deciding to suspend the evacuation of children to the Dominions, will cause disappointment to the hundreds of warmnearted New Zealanders who were looking forward to receiving and welcoming these small refugees into their homes. However, this decision will be accepted universally as a wise and safe precaution in view of the shipping losses sustained through submarine warfare. In the first months of the war, before Germany occupied the Low Countires and France the average weekly loss of Allied and neutral shipping was approximately 50,000 tons, the possession of the Channel and French Atlantic ports increased the enemy’s bag and the aveiage loss from June until the end or August rose to between 80,000 and 90,000 tons a week. On tlie week ending September 22, the loss rose to 159,000 tons, the highest figure reached. This concentration of submarine warfare made the task of the conveyance of children too heavy a responsibility to be borne. in the meantime the children are safer in Britain, specially as her defences against air attack are becoming increasingly effective. This sudden rise in the rate of shipping losses should not, however, be exaggerated. It may mark the beginning of a new campaign against Britain by reinforcements from Italy. And some weight may also be attributed to a statement recently made by a naval man that Germany has built 100 new submarines since the beginning of the war and it is these that are now taking toll. Britain’s anti-submarine forces are now being strengthened by the arrival of new flotillas of destroyers from the United States. The fifty American destroyers which are now being put into commission will prove a valuable and timely addition to the anti submarine forces of Britain. _ Whatever difficulties she may meet, Britain will by her invincible spirit yet retain the proud title of ‘ ‘ mistress of the seas.”