NERVE-CRACKING STRAIN

Evening Star, Issue 23380, 25 September 1939, Page 7

NERVE-CRACKING STRAIN

ORDEALS OF U-BOAT CREWS CEASELESSLY HUNTED BY SEA AND AIR (British Official Wireless.) (RUGBY, September 24. ((Received September 20, at noon.) Twenty-eight days at sea, haunted all the time by the knowledge that every man’s hand as well as the sea itself is against you. That is to-day the situation of the German U-boats on the trade routes of the Atlantic, stated the evening bulletin of the Ministry of Information. Twenty-eight days of ceaseless strain in cramped quarters must tend to sap the morale of the young submarine crews. The available resources of the trained German submarine personnel are limited, and the strain on the U-boats’ crews must have been great, for the German submarine warfare has been answered in no uncertain terms by the anti-submarine craft of the Royal Navy. • The moral effect of ‘depth charges on U-boat crews is intensified by the knowledge from bitter experience that the Royal Navy can detect and hunt them with an efficiency never dreamt of in the last war- It is when a submarine—with the thought of vital supplies, torpedoes, fuel. food, and fresh watertries to get home that the vitality of her crew is at its lowest. It is then that the U-boat faces its greatest ordeal. Not only docs the Royal Navy harass U-boats on their hunting grounds on the ocean trade routes, but it is busily engaged in closing the routes to their “ boltholes.” The operations of our patrols make the. entrances to the North Sea exceedingly hazardous to enemy submarines, while the passage homewards, once in the North Sea, is made more dangerous by our patrolling surface vessels and aircraft.

CONTRABAND MEASURES BRITAIN’S ATTITUDE PERFECTLY FAIR LONDON. September 23. (Received September 25, at 8 a.m.) A communique issued by the Ministry of Information states that in taking measures to cut off Germany's supply of goods from overseas, Britain is not infringing international law, as German propagandists declare. Neutrals have a perfect right to trade with Germany, but equally Britain has by international law the right to intercept contraband goods destined for Germany. A belligerent's right to treat foodstuffs as contraband has also been upheld by the courts. It is not expected that any belligerent will stand by and allow an enemy freely to import the means of carrying on the war.

Beyond exercising her rights in this manner, Britain makes no claim to regulate the economic relations between neutrals and Germany or limit the commercial freedom of neutrals. If, however, inconvenience is caused to neutrals, Britain will always be ready to take into sympathetic consideration a neutral country’s need to maintain the supply of sufficient commodities from overseas for the conduct of its economic life.