'The decision of the British Government to publish only' monthly information as to the amount of-damage inflicted by the enemy upon British shipping is undoubtedly a wise one, though it will mean that less information than ever will be available to show from: day to day how the Battle of the Atlantic is being waged. One of the methods devised whereby undue demands shall not be made upon shipping is to fly the ever increasing numbers of aeroplanes produced in the United States across the Atlantic. Thus as the months pass growing numbers of machines of all classes will be winging their way from factories in the western hemisphere o the aerodromes in the British Isles. Thus! the enemy submarine is to be outwitted. Of course the Germans will do their utmost to prevent as many machines as possible reach~ ing their destinations, but it 1s believed that this danger can be successfully handled by the RAF. That is one of the means of averting some of the dangers of the enemy blockade, for more vessels are available for carrying foodstuffs and war materials, To counter this the" Germans have recently been paying much attention to the British ports. If the latter can be so damaged that, ships cannot be rapidly discharged and sent out for "more supplies, that in itself. is equivalent to a reduction in tonnage. Hence recent concentration on ports and harbours. There is no indication up to the present that the Germans have seriously impaired the facilities for cargo-handling, but that is clearly their intention. In this connection it} may be that the Germans will shortly revert today light raids over Britain, to secure greater bombing accuracy and consequently dovmore damage. There are signs that they are ready endeavouring to feel out some means of safely attacking Britain by day, but the Germans are behaving most cautiously having no stomach for a repetition of the punishment which the RA.,—then much weaker than it is today;—sueceeded in met ing out.
Should the Germans discover a means of raiding Britain by day with some compara~ tive degree of safety another phase of the Battle of the Atlantic will have been opened, Much of the indiscriminate night bombing over Britain is obviously in the hope of ciging damage to the growing number of aerodromes and the machines which they house. 'That damage has not up to the pre~ sent been great, but if the growing aeroplane aid to Britain is in any way to be Aiscounted accurate, and therefore, day bombing will have to be resorted to." That they can deal with' that just as well this year as they did last the RAP, is perfectly con fident, and if the Germans do indeed go back their old and expensive tactics it will be cither because they fancy they have solved the problem which the R/AF, posed for them the battle of Britain, or because of sheer desperation and the necessity of forcing a speedy Issue, Immediate developments in the Battle of the Atlantic will depend upon the decisions which President Roosevelt is expected to make this week with regard to convoying American supplies to Great Britain, Quite obviously the enemy submarine menace is more imposing now than during the latter stages of the last war, because the British Navy, practically alone, is unable to main-fain the extensive convoy system, which Britain, France and the United States were able to do in the last war. Nevertheless, rear as were the losses in shipping last month they are still not great enough to force that early decision which Hitler wants, and with the United States resorting to conveying the war material she manufactures the submarine menace may be brought more under control. Hitler has threatened that should the United States convoy shipping it will mean war, but Mr. Roosevelt is faced with the fact that, to assist Britain as he wishes, war materials have to reach their destination safely, and it may very well be that he is prepared to see that this is the case,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.