BRITISH NAVY

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4535, 11 February 1942, Page 3

BRITISH NAVY

WORKING EVERY MINUTE “■When military operations are under discussion, it rarely enters anyone’s mind to suggest that the Navy is engaged upon them every minute of the day, writes “Strategicus” in the Spectator. Naval men wish for no more recognition than they receive; but if their work and its essential importance to every aspect of our military effort were better recognised, it might be easier to secure a due appreciation of the problem that appears now to dominate the whole war situation. Everything turns now upon supplies, and the communica-

tions by means of which they can be transferred to the point where they are most needed. We cannot even reduce this to the work of the British factories, though experience in the last war shows how great industrial expansion can be. It is impossible for us to manufacture sufficient material —tanks, guns, aeroplanes and the rest—to meet our own needs if we are to Hope for victory at all; and it is plain, therefore, that we cannot meet the requirements of Russia at the same time. Our success in the war must depend upon the production of the United States. In both directions, however, we are faced with the problem of communications, the security of which is dependent upon British sea-power,”