SUPPLY SHIP USED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23850, 28 December 1940, Page 6

SUPPLY SHIP USED

BASE IX NEUTRAL AREA COMMENT BY MR. HUGHES WIDE AREA OF OPERATIONS [FIiOM Ot'lt OWN CORRESPONDENT] SYDNEY. Dec. 'JO The Minister lor the Navy, Mr. Hughes, said, in a broadcast speech, that raiders operating round Australia presumably had a supply ship which probably refuel let! at a base in a neutral countrv. "We may be doing neutral countries a gross injustice," Mr. Hughes added, "but, as it is unlikely that the raider or its supply ship refuels in Kuropean waters, our suspicions are not altogether un wa rran ted. "The presumption is that the raiders refuel from a supply ship, which must fill up from some base and return to meet the raider at a rendezvous," Mr. Hughes said. "Where is this base? Where is this rendezvous? Wo do not know. Powerful Friends Likely "It is probable that these raiders have powerful friends in neutral countries who turn a blind eye when raiders slip in under the guise of honest merchantmen, or who say nothing when a raider's supply ship fills up with fuel and goes out to meet the raider. "The Australian Navy has done and is doing splendid service, but it. has never been contended by naval authorities that our fleet was adequate to ensure absolute safety from aggression. But we can fairly claim that the ships of the Australian Navy, which is being rapidly expanded, are modern, swift, effectively armed, splendidly manned, and kept at the highest pitch of efficiency. They are now engaged in convoying our troops overseas, patrolling our coasts, and searching for the raiders. And in the end I do not doubt that they will find and destroy them. But without the command of the sea by the British Navy, wo cannot hope for success in the hunt for the raiders and ultimate victory in the war. Vastness of the Area "We do not know how many raiders there are in or about Australian waters. We do not know whether they are armed merchant vessels or warships. But the Navy is expected to go out and get them. People who hardly gave a thought to the Navy until these raiders appeared now expect it to perform miracles." Mr. Hughes said that an idea of the vastness of the area over which raiders were operating was given by the fact that ships were sunk 700 miles northwest of Fremantle, while later the location of another raider was given as_ some 2500 miles north-north-east of Sydney, so that these raiders were operating, when last heard of, more than 4000 miles from one another.