NAZI VIOLATION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20054, 28 September 1939, Page 7

NAZI VIOLATION

CENSURE BY CHURCHILL SUBMARINE CAMPAIGN MENACE DECREASING TASK OF ADMIRALTY (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 2.45 p.m. RUGBY, Sept. 20. Reviewing the activities ot the navy Against the German U-boat menace, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Winston Churchill, like the Prime Minister, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, paid tribute in the House of Commons to-day to the important part being played by the Royal Air Force, both in directing destroyers upon the quarry and in themselves attacking. “One U-boat commander who sent me a personal message is now in our hands,” said Mr. Churchill. "I feel at the end of three weeks ot warfare that the Admiralty’s pre-war judgment does not need revision. It will take a long time to starve us out.”

Mr. Churchill said that a third of the damage in the last war was done by 25 experienced U-boat commanders. It would be easier for Germany to build more boats than to replace the skilled officers and crews now captured or destroyed. “The U-noat now seems to prefer neutrals,” said Mr. Churchill. He explained that when H.M.S Courageous turned into the wind at dusk to enable aircraft to land on her deck, by a 10-to-one chance, the vessel was attacked by a U-boat on an. unpredictable course. Building Programme

Part of the First Lord’s statement which attracted much attention was the announcement that an enormous building programme of new ships of 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 he declared that if his surmise—he would not put it higher—that the U-boat 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. “The British Empire and all _ its friends in every quarter of the globe will be able to develop those immeasurable latent forces and that the whole strength and the 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 neutral 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.