Oct 9, Two interesting American statements in-arcate how the attic of the Atlantic is progressing, and both of them ro distinctly encouraging. Rear-Admiral Yates. Stirling. Jr, states that shipping losses for the Inst three months. ending in September. amounted to. a. monthly average of only 160.000 tons: [compared with an average of 472,000 for the previous quarter. That has been cor roborated by a declaration by Mr. Harold Tekes, U. S. Secretary of the Interior to the effect that' "Owing to greatly diminished sinking: in the Atlantic, Britain believes it can, within a short period, release temporarily ten'to fifteen American tankers, which now are carrying of for Britain." There had been a transfer of between fifty and eighty tankers to Britain, but by reason of fewer sinkings and other benefits of the policies adopted by the United States, including the naval policy announced by the President, the return of some of these vessels to America had now een made possible. It follows that, with the assistance of the United States, Britain is holding her own in the Atlantic. and is very nearly in control of the situation, That statements such as these sive the Airect to the fantastic claims of the German propaganda machine is obvious, but that articular German activity has long been raved to be Incapable of the truth. Indeed it the Nazi claims were anywhere near correct. the British mercantile marine would long by now have disappeared. whereas Mr. Churchill, himself, has declared that there are every dav no fewer than two thousand vessels on the high seas, and four hundred within easy reach of Great Britain. Admiral Stirling makes the point that. Hitler well knows that to win the Battle of the Atlantic he must accelerate the destruction of shipping and so starve out Great Britain. To do that he must build more and more submarines. Tt was. stated at the commencement of this maritime battle that he was throwing about two hundred submarines into the struggle. How many of those have been destroyed has not, in accordance with British policy, been revealed, but the inference is justified that the earlier success of the British Navy against. 'U-boats has been maintained, and increased as a result of the assistance which the United States is giving in doing everything to ensure destination. that cargoes for Britain shall reach their
There can be no doubt that the American patrol of the Atlantic has proved a success anti the German submarines are being forced States possess other methods,—have not been disclosed, but figures which have been pub-Ushed concerning the damage done to shipping clearly indicate that they have been efficacious. It is possible that during the winter weather conditions will help to impede U-boat activities, and that Hitler will devote those months to the further building up of his submarine fleet. With the spring, then a renewed onslaught may be expected, but there is no reason to believe that Britain and the United States together will not ultimately be able to secure control of the situation as they did during the last war when eventually sinkings by submarines were reduced to a minimum. Be that as it may, announcements by Lord Woolton regarding the food situation in Britain are distinctly encouraging, and are clearly substantiated by the statements quoted above.
As to future developments in the Battle of the Atlantic, Admiral Stirling speaks of positions such as Dakar, the Azores, the Cape Verde Islands and the Canaries which Hitler gan secure whenever he decides to invade Spain and Portugal, and force Vichy to give up its colonies. It does not seem that in these connections he will be able to effect anything In the nature of a sudden coup. and probabilities of Britain and the United States being able to forestall him are distinctly rear. Their seizure by Germany would un~ doubtedly have a very profound effect upon the Battle of the Atlantic, and it Is to be hoped that should those' islands ever be menaced by Germany the democracies will act speedily and effectively in their own Aefence. It would indeed be something of a nity, if in order to secure their own positions Britain and the United States had'to take hostile action against the possessions of countries at present neutral in this conflict, but the fact remains that, if those nations are to retain their freedom, it 1s essential that Naziism shall be beaten, and that no false sentiment should be allowed to obscure that very apparent truth,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.