Attempts are being made by the Nazi Ministry of Propaganda to twist admissions of the difficulties which lie ahead, made by British leaders, notably Mr. Winston Churchill the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and Mr. W. L. Mackenzie King, the Prime Minister of Canada, into confessions that they do not believe that Britain can win the war. An example of this distortion occurred in an economic review issued by the Nazis on Sunday, in which Mr. Churchill was represented as having said that Britain can-rot hold out without the assistance of the United States in defending her supply routes. Mr. Churchill, while being grateful to the United States for all the assistance already given—gratitude which he has many times expressed—of course, said nothing of the sort. What he actually said was:
"Mr, Mackenzie King has spoken of the great issues of the war and of the duty which lies before free men in all parts of the world to band together lest their heritage be lost.
He has spoken of immense difficulties we have to face. of our unflinching resolve, and he has also struck that note. never absent from our midst. that no lasting or perfect solution of the difficulties wit which we are now confronted—with which the whole world is now confronted—no diversion of that sad fate by which the whole world is menaced.
can be reached without the full cooperation $n every field of all the nations which as Yet lie out of the range of the conquerors'
power."
This is a very different thing from what the Nazis have put into his mouth. Neither Mr. Churchill nor Mr. Mackenzie King has ever uttered a single word to cast doubt upon their complete confidence of ultimate success, and the frequent warnings to the British people against complacency prove that, if anything, the British tend to be over-confident and not to heed the statements that there must never for a moment be any relaxation of their efforts.
The most striking feature of the economic review referred to is the absence of any mention of Germany's condition, about which the compilers may be presumed to know something, and the concentration upon the effects of British shipping losses in the Atlantic, about which they know nothing. The. British Government some time ago decided to discontinue figures of shipping losses in the belief that they might prove of value to the enemy. But even during the times when these losses were published weekly, they included losses in all oceans, the Atlantic, the North Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean, and even the Pacific. They were not losses suffered only in the Atlantic, as the Germans very conveniently forget, thereby endeavouring to create the impression that the total losses were much her than those admitted. But now, any mate by the Germans of the losses inflicted upon British shipping must necessarily be guess-work. Their claims would appear to be aimed at tempting the British Government to make some denial which would specific enough for them to be able to work out approximately what the losses' really are, In this they have failed. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. A. V. Alexander, has announced that the losses for the last two months have been lower than at any time since he took over his office. The United Press has quoted official circles as saying that sinkings in the Atlantic during July and August were "particularly low," in spite of the fact that there were presumably two hundred U-boats operating. And the Naval Correspondent of "The Times," who is always exceptionally well informed, has revealed that the average of recent weekly imports into Great Britain was 850,000 tons, and the average loss of ships in convoy was only one in two hundred and forty, adding "these figures are an illuminating antidote to the German picture of a starving Britain and an ocean swept clear of shipping." The Nazis have quoted the-average weekly imports for 1937 of 1,400,000 tons as the bare necessity that Britain must have in order to exist, purposely ignoring the fact that a large part of that figure was taken up by luxury imports, the imports of commodities which are now rationed, and of raw materials for industries which have been virtually closed as being unessential to the nation's total war effort. The truth is that Britain is getting on reasonably well, and efforts to conjure up death-bed scenes are no more than babbling.
There is the other side of the picture which the Nazis choose to ignore. It is the production of new ships by Britain and the United States, and the probable operation of Axis ships marooned in their ports by the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. The figures of ship-building in Britain are naturally a closely guarded secret, but all round the islands the yards are going at full blast. Rear Admiral Emory S. Land, Chairman of the United States Maritime Commission, has revealed that one hundred and thirty-four vessels will be completed in United States yards this year, ninety in the first quarter of next year, one hundred and forty-six in the second quarter, one hundred and fifty-four in the third quarter, and one hündred and eighty-four in the fourth quarter. On the basis of the tonnage he gives for 1942 it can be calculated that more than 1,300,000 tons of shipping will be ready by the end of December. Not all of it will be lent to Britain, but it can be confidently stated that much of it will, and for the rest, each American ship which will operate on a normal trade route will release a British ship from that route for more direct service to Britain. That the Nazi hope to make the world's flesh creep by horrific tales of Britain's desperate position will not be fulfilled is exposed by the figures of the latest Gallop poll on the question of American convoying in the Atlantic. They show a decline of four per cent. in those in favour of convoying, reflecting the conviction that pressure against Britain has been relaxed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.