The Evening Star SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1942. SAFER SEA LANES.

Evening Star, Issue 24292, 5 September 1942, Page 4

The Evening Star SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1942. SAFER SEA LANES.

The week’s news has contained much that throws a more hopeful light on the trend l of the war at sea. The Washington correspondent of the New York ‘ Herald-Tribune ’ quoted figures in support of his opinion that the turning point has been reached in the Battle of the Atlantic. Axis submarines operating in the. Western Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea are no longer reaping the grim harvest which marked the earlier months of United States participation in the war, as the official statistics for August reveal a drop of 50 per cent, compared with the list for each of the previous three months. British shipping in other parts of the Atlantic has also felt an easing of the strain, a pleasing state of affairs which is clearly explained in the statement made by the First Lord of the Admiralty' (Mr A. V. Alexander), that new devices have made it doubly dangerous for U-boats to operate. The fact that in July and August more enemy submarines were sunk than dur-' iug any other twd months of the war encourages the thought that, although there possibly has been a seasonal slump in the Axis campaign, the Allies are steadily gaining the upper hand. Concurrently now vessels are being built both in Britain and America with such remarkable speed that replacements are outstripping losses. The progress made in ship construction has been humorously' illustrated in a sketch by an overseas artist. The mayoress of a British town is seen breaking the traditional bottle of champagne, or its wartime substitute, over the bows of a vessel about to be launched. At the same time an eager foreman dashes up to the platform, shouting: “Don’t go away, lady; wo are just going to lay the keel of another.”

More than a hint that the problem as a whole will need continued attention, however, is given in a Washington message which quotes the United States Secretary of the Navy (Colonel Knox) as saying; “ Although there has been a steady diminution in the number of ships sunk off our shores, the submarine menace is by no means solved. The minute you make it tough in one place the enemy hunts in new areas on the high seas far from land.” While U-boat crews must be credited with physical courage above the average, they are thus seen to possess some of the characteristics of cornered rats. The war on merchant shipping, has become so indelibly regarded as one of the German methods of conducting hostilities that no mercy can be shown in hounding down the marauders. Allied submarines, indeed. have to some extent been forced to reply in kind. Colonel Knox is probably correct when he says that the U-boat menace will never he completely conquered, but that it can bo reduced so substantially that it will not interfere with the 'attainment of an Allied victory.