Grantham, Mar. 8.
By the end of March, Britain, in the past twelve months, would have completed 480 Jarge and small warships, Sir Victor Warrender, Financial Secretary of the' Admiralty, announced today.
Speaking at the opening of the war weapons weeks, Sir Victor disclosed that the warships which would be completed by the end of March "are over five times as many as in any year since the commencement of the naval rearmament programme."—Uniled Press, Iver, and in September the mining of ships in the canal made navigation leven slower and more complicated.
In December a ship laden with iron lore' was sunk in the canal, damaging [the canal bottom and causing one of {the embankments to collapse, 'Throughout this period even when the canal was not completely blocked it had been open to the passage of lonly the smallest ships, Kid canal is only one feld of the R.AFs mine-laying activities, which have extended from Norway' to the Mediterranean with outstanding success, indicated by the fact that in less than 10 per cent. of the total mine fields laid by the Royal Air Force and the Fleet Air Arm, well over 100 enemy supply ships' are known 10 have been destroyed, By Statement"
Belgrade, Mar, 8.
An official statement that the Yugoslav Government would always have in view the supreme interests of the State, and its independence and integrity was greeted with relief in the capital, seething as it is with rumours, The indications are that Yugoslavia, which is. unwilling to sign the Triparite Pact, may shortly be asked sign a separate declaration {friendship with the Axis and Soviet Russia, According to an entirely uncon Armed report, Yugoslavia is being Jasked to modiste between Greece and italy, and the terms are alleged to include renunciation of territorial Jelaims by Italy, but Greece welld be asked to cede Salonika and Patras to Germany.
Opposition leaders are reported to be preparing a statement "demanding full explanation of the situation, 'The calling-up of military classes, ostensibly for spring—manguvres, continues, however, and the main bulk. probably not' exceeding $00,000 mobilized, has been stationed in the north, Reports from usually well-informed quarters stating that the Visit of the German Ministers to Zagreb has resulted in not a single concrete achievement are helping to restore confidence here—Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.