The Waikato Times FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 9, 1940 PROTECTION OF CONVOYS

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21034, 9 February 1940, Page 4

The Waikato Times FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 9, 1940 PROTECTION OF CONVOYS

War at sea, which is falling upon some neutral countries even more heavily than upon Britain and France, is rapidly drawing neutral shipping into the protection of the Allied convoys. Germany, robbed of innocent victims, is becoming increasingly angry and is hurling dire threats at those who seek to save their seamen and their ships by accepting the escort of the Allied Navies. Acceptance of such protection is regarded by the Nazis as an act of belligerency and earning the penalty of “sinking on sight.” That threat is scarcely likely to deter the neutral States, which already know, to their cost, that German submarines are sinking every ship on sight wherever possible, and that German mines lie in their path in any case. So successfully has the neutral participation in the convoys been that it seems that for the remainder of the war the ships of many nations not involved directly in the conflict will be sailing the seas under the escort of French and British warships. To the end of January. 300 neutral ships had been convoyed, and all but one reached their destinations safely. This result when compared with the experience of neutral ships in their independent voyaging cannot fail to impress neutral shipping interests and further enrage the Nazi High Command. British and French shipping losses in the first few months of the war have been so unexpectedly light that Germany vented her wrath in cowardly attacks on the neutrals. If these too escape into the protection of the convoys, Germany’s position will be even more desperate. In the meantime the German attacks on neutral ships are rousing great anger, especially in Norway and Sweden, which have lost hundreds of seamen and many fine ships. Germany is rapidly losing what scanty sympathy she might have expected from the Scandinavian countries. She is demanding trade with those States and yet is making that trade impossible by destroying the means of transport. Her policy is illogical as well as brutal and must react to her own undoing in the end. Indeed, the patience exercised by the Scandinavians so far has been amazing. They are, of course, hoping against hope to avoid active embroilment in the war, but at least as far as their overseas trade is concerned they could not be more deeply involved than now. Germany’s recognition that the initiative in the destructive campaign at sea is slipping from her grasp is finding expression in the threat of a greatly strengthened attack in the spring, when, they say, “waves of submarines and swarms of aeroplanes” will wage a deadly war on shipping and force Britain into submission in a few months. The swarms of aeroplanes are a possibility, but they will be met by counter-swarms. The “waves of submarines” are not so easy to imagine. Are these to be the Russian vessels, or can Germany build the numbers required ? The threats may have another meaning. If there is any truth in the report that Germany has peace terms to offer, which the Nazis deny, the threat of terrors to come might be expected to act as a lever to gain greater concessions. In any case it would be unreasonable to suppose that Germany is not putting every ounce of her strength into the sea campaign at this vital stage of the blockade.