Seven men were killed and several were" missing as the result of an explosion aboard the French destroyer La Rail-louse in port, the Navy Ministry announced this evening. La Railleuse was recently in the news when, in ce-operation with the well-known destroyer Sirocco, conqueror of three U-boats, she sank a German submarine after a thrilling chase.—Havas, Only Sixteen Ships of France Lost a War Paris, Mar. 27.
France has lost only sixteen. ships of her 3,000,000-tonmerehant "fleet since the war began, and only two of these were in convoy when they foundered, Merchant Marine Mi ster Alphonse Rio asserted in a radio broadcast this evening.
He pointed out that while the French merchant feet alone might mot been able to shoulder the whole burden of wartime supplies for France, the British fleet has been placed at France's disposal, and that {totals one-third of the world's merchant marine tonnage.
Nevertheless, M. Ro asserted, France may be compelled to increase restrictions in order to reduce imports of non-necessities and put the merchant ships to the best possible use.
In conclusion, he pointed out that the Allies are exercising contraband control "with rigour" and that they Intend to continue such severe control in the future. I has yielded ood results to date for several hundreds of thousands of tons of goods, mostly valuable ore, has been inter~ cepted en route to Germany—Iavas,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.