MORE VIGOUR WANTED

Southland Times, Issue 24681, 28 February 1942, Page 5

MORE VIGOUR WANTED

BROADSIDE FOR ADMIRALTY “SHAKE THEM GOOD AND HARD” (Rec. 5.30 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 26. The Admiralty’s passive defence cannot win the war,” said Admiral of the Fleet Sir Roger Keyes, speaking in the House of Commons debate on the naval estimates. “There have been opportunities of carrying out more aggressive policies which I know the Prime Minister wanted carried out, but a wonderful chain of committees finds every possible excuse for not doing it. “After a tour of the country I was shocked to find how far we arc from the essential 100 per cent, endeavour. I advise Mr Alexander to go more among the shipyards where there is nowhere near 100 per cent, work going on. Naval officers and men are absolutely disgusted with the slow work when their ships come in for repair. The men of the Navy see men idling and prolonging work in order to get overtime. “I hope Mr Alexander will shake up the Admiralty good and hard. The Fleet Air Arm started the war with 268 practically obsolete machines. A strong naval air service is essential.” Mr Hall, Financial Secretary to the Admiralty: I have seen shipyards’ production. and work figures which do not bear out the allegation that the majority of the workers are slackers. The output could be improved 15 to 20 per cent, if the relationships of both sides of industry could be improved. The shipbuilding industry lost three times as many days as a result of disputes in 1941 as in 1940, and four times as many days on the engineering side. These many days lost would have produced 50,000 tons of additional shipping. BATTLE OF SEVEN SEAS “The year 1542 will be the most dangerous period of the shipping crisis,” said Mr A. V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty, in presenting the Navy estimates to the House. “The Battle of the Atlantic has now developed into what might be called the Battle of the Seven Seas."

Mr Alexander then reviewed the past year which opened with shipping losses running at a very heavy rate, reaching their peak in April because of the large amount of tonnage lost in the Greek campaign, and beginning in May a fall which continued more or less steadily until December when a new phase opened. Despite the unprecedented scale on which U-boat construction had been expanded month by month the losses in convoy had throughout 'he year still remained just under 5 per cent., Mr Alexander continued. “The steadily improving prospect which I described was at once clouded by the entry of Japan into the war,” he went on. The losses sustained in the Far East and in the Pacific up to the present have been considerable but a proportion of the ships lost was designed solely for the local ttade of the China coast and these vessels would not have been of value in the transoceanic traffic cf the Allies.

Coming to the loss of the Prince of Wales and Repulse, Mr Alexander said that since the loss of these two ships the light forces in that area had done splendid work, which included the escort of nine convoys into Singapore.

ENEMY LOSSES Mr Alexander added: “Since September 1939, our comparatively small fleet of submarines has sunk or damaged no less than 326 ships, 64 of which were warships of one kind or another, whilst the Fleet Air Arm, also since the beginning of the war, has carried out 120 attacks on warships and convoys at sea, 200 attacks on warships and ships in harbour, 260 raids on shore objectives and 600 air combats. Planes of the Fleet Air Arm have shot down or severely damaged 270 aircraft over the sea. They have sunk or seriously damaged 45 enemy warships of all kinds and 335,000 tons of enemy shipping.”

“It is remarkable that casualties to the Fleet ‘have been, and are being, well replaced,” Mr Alexander added. “The total naval tonnage delivered in 1941 was not very far below that of 1916, although the output of merchant tonnage last year was very much greater than in 1916. This has been in spite of the fact that the burden of repairs occasioned by heavier steaming demands upon our shipping, in addition to larger superficial damage and underwater damage from aircraft attack, has been much greater than it was in the last war. “We now have in hand bigger programmes than we had in the last war, and a much larger number of building berths is in operation than existed in 1939.”