SHIPPING LOSSES

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 289, 4 September 1942, Page 5

SHIPPING LOSSES

U-Boat Menace Far From Solved MOVE TO NEW AREAS

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Received September 3, 9.45 p.m.)

WASHINGTON, Sept. 2.

“Though there has been a steady diminution of ships sunk off our own shores, the submarine menace is by no means solved,” said the Secretary for the Navy, Colonel Knox, at a Press conference. “The minute you make it tough in one place,” he said, “they hunt in new areas on the high seas far from land. It is a long job. We may never Bek it completely, but it can be reduced substantially so as not to interfere with victory.

“The progress of the shipbuilding programme is extremely satisfactory. All the ships are being both launched and fitted out ahead of time. “No one can speak dogmatically about 'the purpose of the Japanese occupation of the Aleutians, but they are probably using Kiska as an observation post. No Japanese land bases of which we know have been built in the Aleutians.”

HELD INFERIOR TO U-BOATS

Japanese Submarines

(Received September 3, 11.55 p.m.) NEW YORK, September 2. The correspondent of the “New York Times,” Mr. aHnson Baldwin, reviewing the submarine warfare in. the Pacific, says that the Japanese do not possess submarines similar in quality to the German U-boats, and also lack expert submarine crews. Therefore, Japanese submarines are strongly in contrast to their surface operations which, indicates that the Japanese are regarding submarines as of minor importance. On the contrary, American submarines in the Pacific are. extremely successful.

It is estimated that they have sunk half a million tons of* Japanese merchant shipping, which is a severe drain on a country whose replacement capacity is small. Mr. Baldwin further points out that America is benefiting from the possession of Hawaii, which is the keystone of Pacific strategy, and from where submarines can easily operate against the Japanese coasts.