The withdrawal of France from the war has brought the enemy's air and submarine bases nearer Home ani made it easier for him to bomb a torpedo shipping in the North Sea. the English Channel and the wester: approaches.
It has also caused gans the general blockade formerly held by the French Navy and further. as fa result of the over-running by the enemy of neighbouring countries, we Fave lest many of our sources of p, supply, thus causing our merchantmen.
ko longer voyages for the required commodities and therefore necessitat~ ing a greater number of vessels t9 maintain our usual petiodie supply. of goods, BUL we are told by the Prime Ministet and" Minister of " Shipping. that all these losses and disadvantages have been more than offset by our: intensive shipbuilding progiammc throughout the Empire, by old shipe being re-conditioned and Brought into again, by more and more} vessels being' purchased from other nations, particularly from our frien the United States of America, b:
iptured vessels, and by Allied verses booing taken over fo: Government cze to prevent them falling into enemy!
is, Ip addition to Unis there mut bout 1,060,000 gross tons of neu- yyy"
shipping on time charter for the ish Government, Regarding the question of importa tion of goods into our country, the many factors governing unless we are in constant touch with affairs at home it is extremely affairs at, home. it is extremely W diMieult to adequately analyse this complex matter and even If we tried, the chances are that our estimates would still be far off the mark.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.