Paying a tribute to' anti-aircraft gunners, the Prime Minister intimated that it was now known that in the raids on Rosyth and Scapa Flow, they brought down two German bombers, and there was reason to think that they caused such damage to others as to prevent their reaching home.
At sea, he continued, there had been an intensification of the U-boat campaign but in spite of one or two strokes of good fortune, the enemy had not been able to maintain the rote of sinking which was at first achieved.
"U-boats have been driven to operate further and further from their bases," he declared, "and from points where trade is bound, to converge. The destruction of enemy submarines is proceeding at a sufficiently high rate to encourage the belief that the U-boat menace will eventually be overcome."
The House would have seen that during the last few days the sinking five British ships had been announced. One of these ships—the Stonegate—was sunk by the German raider, the Deutschland, some time ago, but information of this loss had only just been received. Together, these ships aggregated 22,715 tons. On the other hand a number of enemy ships had been arrested and brought in by blockading squadrons of the Royal Navy.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.