WAR TOPICS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 110, 15 January 1940, Page 8

WAR TOPICS

AMERICAS DEFENCE PROGRAMME CONVOY SYSTEM PREVENTS LOSSES (By the BEACON Watchman) The Appropriations Committee of the House of Representatives has approved President Roosevelt's recommendations for emergency defence and neutrality expenditure and has asked Congress to provide 267,200,000 dollars for the Army, the Navy, the coast guard . and the Fedeial Bureau of Investigation, providing for the following increases 111 che personnel >' — . Army 16,969 to 277,000. National guard 11,000 to 2*11,000. Navy 29,000 to 145,000, Marine corps 6000 to 2,3,000. Coast guard 2000 to 10,866. The Navy receives 28,596,000 dollars to buy 513 aircraft to use on neutrality patrol work. The coast guard appropriation is chiefly to recommission inactive vessels. The neutrality patrol is now being extended 800 miles seaward. The American House of Representatives has also been hearing evidence on a naval programme involving the construction of huge battleships displacing 80,000 tons, and mounting 18 inch guns. At present it is difficult to see the value of such ships. There Is one tilling certain and that is that should the U.S.A. construct two of these vessels, they would have to be built on that side of the continent on which they were to be based. The Panama Canal is not big enough to allow their passage. More favoured at present among the American naval circles are the 45,000 ton battleships which are on the stocks. in displacement these would exceed the largest warship at present afloat. This is Britain's bat-tle-cruiser Hood. m 9 m m Recently we discussed the attitude of the Dutch people towards the war. We stated at that time that they are inclined in sympathies towards Germany. This may have upset ideas on the subject and it may be timely to observe that there seems to be a misunderstanding by the pub lie as to the attitude of Belgium. Naturally, Ave would like to have Belgium on our side. The Belgian people are a mixture of Caul, Goth and Hun. The Gallic element probably are sympathetic to the Allies, but the Flemish, Dutch and German elements tend to sj T inpath:se with Hitler. The Belgian Nazis, under Leon Le Grelle, have made several bold bids for power. King Leopold is not as democratic as was his father, King Albert. King Leopold's appeal for peace, and his declaration that Belgium would resist any violation of her neutrality, Avere aim ed as much at the Allies as at Hitler. The Belgian Air Force has shot down and killed Allied pilots who unwittingly flew over Belgium. Shortly before the broadcast King Leopold reviewed the Belgian Army at war manoeuvres on the French frontier! The significance of this move has not been lost on Lord Gort or General Gamelin. • * m * Sinkings due to enemy action in the week ended January 6 numbered five, representing a total tonnage of 11,143. (Continued foot next column).

Two of these five ships were British, namely, the Boxhill (5677 tons) and the Ena (81 tons), Avhile three were neutral, namely, the Luna, Norwegian (95:) tons), the Lars Magnus Trozelli (1951 tons), and the Svarton (2475 tons), both Swedish. Up to date 5911 British, Allied and neutral ships have been convoyed. Of these, 12 ships, representing .2 per cent of the total number, have been lost by enemy action while in convoy. Sinkings by U-boats, which approached an average of 50,000 tons weekly for the first two weeks of the war totalled, for the last twelve weeks, less than one-Ufth of that. These figures show that the enemy's submarine campaign is increasingly ineffectual.