SHIPPING OUTLOOK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 December 1940, Page 5

SHIPPING OUTLOOK

NEEDS THAT ONLY AMERICA CAN SUPPLY BRITISH MINISTER’S SURVEY. MAINTENANCE OF WAR EFFORT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, December 21. In a statement to an American Press representative the Minister of Shipping, Mr. Cross, said that if the sinkings of shipping continued at the present rate without new construction it would not be possible indefinitely to maintain the war effort on the present scale. Next year' would be a most difficult period. Britain was buijding as much as possible, but she hoped that the United States would help in the coming year. Britain was buying old American ships but these were nearly exhausted, and new ones had also been ordered. Perhaps the United States could spare something from her existing ordinary services. The British shipping losses have trebled since June. Britain must possess more destroyers and also replace other warships in order to overcome the ravages of’the submarines. “We shall know how to master the submarine if we possess equipment, but nevertheless we require an enormous amount of new merchant tonnage construction,” the Minister continued. “Only the United States can supply this new construction, and therefore I hope she will embark on a shipbuilding programme on a similar gigantic scale to that of the last war.

“Given that, and also a steady accretion of our strength, there is not the slight doubt that we will maintain our war effort at full strength, especially during the crucial spring of 1942.”