1,250,000 Britons Under Arms, P.M. Reveals

Northern Advocate, 1 February 1940, Page 5

1,250,000 Britons Under Arms, P.M. Reveals

(Received 1.30 p.m.) LONDON, January 31

Reviewing the “prodigious efforts” of the first five months of the war. Mr. Chamberlain, speaking at a luncheon in London, said Britain had upwards of 1,250.000 men under arms.

This included the first contingent of the British Expeditionary Force in France, with its many thousands of transport vehicle and nearly 500,000 tons of munitions and food.

The battle front of the Navy covered two-thirds of the earth’s surface. During the very time when RearAdmiral Sir Henry Harwood was fighting in the heroic action against the Graf Spee in the South Atlantic, the British submarine Salmon torpedoed a Nazi cruiser in the North Sea. At the same moment the British Navy was convoying Canadian troops across the Atlantic, and yet other troops came from Bombay through the Mediterranean. Real Facts. Nearer home, the Navy was continuing to protect her convoys with such success that they were increasingly being used by neutrals, while naval power was enforcing without hindrance from the German naval forces the Allied contraband control. Those were the facts, as opposed to the audacious assertions of the German propaganda that they had wrested command of the seas from Britain. What was true was that by the use of their, air force in attacks on undefended British and neutral merchantmen trawlers, fishing boats and lightships, the Germans were taking a certain toll ofj ships and lives, but the planes made haste to return home as soon as British fighter patrols appeared. Battleship Travels Over 34,000 Miles. To give an idea of what was involved in the Navy’s watch and ward of the seas, Mr. Chamberlain mentioned that since the outbreak of war one British battleship had covered well over 34,000 miles, while in the first 120 days of war one British cruiser was at sea for 102 days. On one occasion a destroyer was at sea on 103 days in succession. Eschewing figures of the expansion in the air which might be useful to'the enemy. Mr. Chamberlain nevertheless stated that the forces now employed in aircraft construction were seven, times those of 1935-36, and higher today than at the peak of output, in the last war. Almost Inexhaustible Supply. Experience already showed the quality of the machines, and the personnel left nothing to be desired. If Germany was probably making improvements to correct faults disclosed in its machines, Britain was not standing still either. The Empire Air Training scheme promised an almost inexhaustible future supply of pilots, observers, bombers and gunners. “I venture to say you could have no more striking demonstration of the power of the Dominions, separated by sc many thousands of mues from one another, to canalise and concentrate their forces in order to forge a mighty weapon of war,” said Mr. Chamberlain. Production Equipment. The Premier turned next to war production and equipment, which involved a revolution in industrial and economic life and vast re-organisation of Imperial resources. For example, the whole output of Empire wool for the duration of the war and » year after had been bought, as well as £85,000,000 of textiles and leather.

Long-term contracts had been arranged for copper, zinc, lead, aluminium. timber, hemp and flax. Further cataloguing the achievements of the Government in organising the nation for war, Mr. Chamberlain said that at home since the war began the output of guns of all kinds had’ been doubled, and in some cases increased eightfold. Shell Output Doubled. The output of shells had been also doubled since the war began and was now 10' times as great as after the first five months of the last war. After referring to expansion of overseas trade and agriculture, at which the Government was aiming, the Premier commented as follows: “You will see from what I said that we are using the services of millions of men and women. We are taking steps to control tens" of millions of tons of material, and we are spending hundreds of millions in money. . “In future, we expect to make'still greater efforts, and yet there is not a single non-belligerent country feels it is -threatened by this enormous accumulation of power. Not a Neutral In Danger. “There is not one who feels its independence in danger at our hands. “There is not one which suspects us of coveting a square inch of its territory.” ' , By special arrangement, Kernel's world service in addition to other special sources of information is used in the 'iomDilation of overseas intelligence published In this issue and ail rights therein in Australia and New Zealand , are Suoh of tiie cable news in this issue as is so headed has appeared in “The Times” and is sent to tins paper by special permission. It should be understood that the opinions are not those of "The Times’' unless expressly stated to be so.