Mr. Churchill Says Half U-Boats Sunk, Building Schedules Behind; Finns Show Red Weakness London, Jan. 21, IPPHE First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr, Winston Churchill, broadcasting over the B.B.C, last night on "the fate of the war,"
'a it seemed pretty certain that If of the boats with whick Germany began the war were sunk and that their new building programme had fallen far behind what the Allies had expected, "So far, small neutral States are bearing the brunt of German malice and cruelty, Neutral ships are sunk without law or mercy. not only by the blind and wanton mine, but by the coldly considered and deliberately aimed torpedo," he declared. "It is only in British and French convoys that safety is to be found, There, it is 500 to one against being sunk, He said that at the Admiralty as at the French Ministry of Marine, "things are not going so badly after all. Indeed, they have never gone so well in naval war."
The Allies had no need to ask for respite. "Every week, our commerce grows. Every month, our organization is perfected, or at least, reinforced. We feel ourselves more confident day by day in our ability to police the seas and oceans and keep open and active the salt water highways by which we live and along. which we shall draw means of vie-tory."
Referring to U-boats, Mr. Churchill said: "Our faithful and' assiduous detector smells them out in the depths of the sea, and with the helpful ald of the Air Force, 1 do not doubt we shall break: their strength Jand their purpose.
"The magnetic mine and all other mines with which the narrow waters fare strewn do not present us with problem which we deem unsolv-
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