MERCHANT SHIPS

Waikato Times, Volume 130, Issue 21654, 14 February 1942, Page 8

MERCHANT SHIPS

JAPANESE STRENGTH TOTAL OF 6,750,000 (By Telegraph.—Press Association) WELLINGTON, Friday According to the latest figures available, Japan had 2418 vessels of over 100 tons, totalling 5,750,682 gross tons, at the end of February, 1940, and including 47 tankers totalling 440,000 tons, says a cablegram from the Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire received by the New Zealand Associated Chambers. If 500,000 be taken as a reasonable estimate of Japanese construction during each of the two years 1940 and 1941—and there is no reason to rate it any higher—Japan’s merchant fleet can be reckoned as about 6,750,000 tons when she went to war. Out of this fteet she has lost at least 45 merchant or transport ships, including three of 10,00 u tons and one of 17,000 tons; while many others have been damaged. Roughly two tons of shipping are required to take an infantry man a short journey with his ordinary equipment; to transport armoured divisions and artillery on long journeys, some of which last six days, means many more tons per man. Supplies To Invaders Furthermore, once a landing is effected, the invader’s real problem is only just beginning. Although troops may find enough to feed themselves on the spot, all ammunition, spare parts, and replacements must come from home. If these do not arrive regularly, the invading force is as good as lost. This, then, is the tremendous task which Japan has set her merchant navy. It has to keep up a steady stream of supplies to overseas Japanese forces., some of them 300 miles from home; it has to maintain this service regardless of losses and in the face of constant surface, under-water, and air attack; and at the same time it has to provide many ships for traffic between Japan and the Chinese mainland, which is of vital importance since the cutting off of Japan’s supplies from the American continent. Whether such a task is within the power of a merchant navy under six and three-qua iter million tons remains to be seen.