ENCOURAGING SURVEY

Evening Star, Issue 23382, 27 September 1939, Page 9

ENCOURAGING SURVEY

SHARP DECLINE IN BRITISH LOSSES (British Official Wire,less.) RUGBY, September 26. (Received September 27, at 11 a.ra.) A great impression was made in the House of Commons by the statement of Hr Winston Churchill, in which he disclosed the accumulation of measures being taken to meet the U-boat menace and the significant decline in the success attending the German efforts. Both'Opposition Leaders, Mr Attlee .oriel Sir Archibald Sinclair, welcomed the First Lord’s encouraging survey, which was all the more telling for his insistence on the need for caution in over-sanguine deductions from the figures he gave the House, of which the most notable was the fall of British shipping losses due to enemy action from 65,000 tons in the first seven days of the war to 9,000 tons in the last six days. War, he reminded the House, •was full of unpleasant surprises, and they must expect further losses. But members seized upon this candid disclosure of great improvements in the methods of submarine hunting since the last war .so that work which required 15 or 20 destroyers then could now be done-by two, and his affirmation that the British attack on the U-boats was only beginning. By the end of October the Ndvy would have three times the hunting force which was operating at tho outbreak of the war. ENORMOUS BUILDING PROGRAMME IN FULL OPERATION LONDON, September 26. (Received September 27, at 2 p.m.) Mr Churchill’s statement which attracted much* attention was the announcement that the enormous building programme of new ships of a simple character capable of being very rapidly constructed was already in full operation, and the whole House joined in cheering his closing sentences, in which 1m declared that if his surmise—he

would not put it higher—that the Üboat menace would not this time come within reach of assuming the serious proportions it did in 1917 were proved correct, it meant that “ one primary danger is falling into its proper confines, and that amid all our anxieties we can feel certain of a steady measure of assurance so far as the submarine is concerned, and that the British Empire and all its friends in every quarter of the globe will be able to develop those immeasurably latent forces, and that the whole strength and great resources and man-power of these many communities can be concentrated in ever-growing intensity upon the task we have in hand, in which task we have only to persevere to conquer.” Mr Churchill also had the sympathy of all parties in the House of Commons in his measured denunciation of methods of warfare contrary to the long-declared traditions of the sea—methods which were now being turned against nentral shipping, in the last few days Finnish, Dutch, Swedish, Greek, Norwegian, and Belgian ships had been sunk on the high seas in an indiscriminate manner, with loss of life. HAZELSIDE SINKING FLAT DENIAL OF GERMAN STORY NO WARNING SHOTS (British Official Wireless.) , RUGBY, September 26. (Received September 27, at noon.) The German news agency report, professedly based on survivors’ stories, that the submarine which sank the Newcastle freighter Hazelside, of 4,646 tons, signalled the vessel to heavc-to and later fired warning shots over the steamer’s bows, is flatly contradicted in an interview with some of the survivors published in the British Press. The German account admits that one of the Hazelside’s boats was destroyed by shells, but omits all reference to the casualties caused. / Royal Air Force patrols sighted the U-boat, which tried to submerge hurriedly, but as it did so made a good target for bombs. Observation was kept on the spot for some time, but nothing further was seen of the submarine.