CONVOY SYSTEM

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 September 1939, Page 7

CONVOY SYSTEM

NOW IN FULL OPERATION FIRST LORD’S SURVEY. THE ARMING OF MERCHANT SHIPS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 26. In his statement on the war at sea supplementary to that made by Mr Chamberlain, Mr Winston Churchill, First. Lord of the Admiralty, gave interesting figures in the House of Commons showing the progress of measures for dealing with the U-boat campaign. The convoy system, he said, was now in full operation both ways. The arming of merchantmen was proceeding apace, and in a very short time the immense mercantile marine of the British Empire, of which about 2000 ships were usually at sea every day, would be armed.

Referring to the curious circumstances in which he was back at the Admiralty again after 25 years and moving over the same course against the same enemy in the same month of the year, Mr Churchill said it gave him an opportunity to make comparisons as no one else could. “I see how much greater are the advantages we possess today in coping with the U-boats than we did 25 years ago,” he said.

Part of the First Lord’s statement, which attracted much attention, was the announcement that an enormous building programme of new ships of a simple character, capable of being very rapidly constructed, was already in full operation.