pire owned a tanker fleet with an aggregate gross tonnage of 3,250,000. Now nearly 2,000,000 tons of Norwegian, over 500,000 of Dutch and about 100,000 tons of Danih and Belgian tankers are available.
Allowing for losses by enemy action on the one hand and for new construction on the other, it may be calculated, states the "Service," that Britain now has at her disposal a tanker tonnage of some 5,800,000 gross, a figure which considerably exceeds her requirements.
Even if the U-boat menace, which has hitherto caused the loss of less than 5 p.c. of Britain's tanker tonnage, were to become more serious, Britain would still have a substantial surplus available over and above her own requirements.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.