U-BOATS CHECKMATED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20093, 13 November 1939, Page 6

U-BOATS CHECKMATED

NAVY’S SECRET WEAPON NEUTRAL SHIPS ATTACKED MINES SOWN BROADCAST (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Oflicial Wireless.) Reed. 9 a.m. RUG'BY, Nov. 11. Naval circles Hi London point out that the failure of the German Üboats against British merchant shipping—not one British merchantman has been lost this month—and their' reluctance to deliver a direct attack in face of the British anti-submarine measures, the most successful of which is the navy’s secret weapon which seeks out and destroys the unseen submarine and which has become the terror of U-boats and one of the major worries .of the German High Command, has led to the adoption by Germany of a new form of warfare against merchant shipping. ■

This has taken the form of the sowing of mines in defiance of the rules of warfare which states that the position of any mine on the high seas must be announced. These mines have already claimed many neutral victims.

There is, in fact, ample evidence that Germany is failing to observe the rights of neutral shipping. In the first two months of the war, 30 neutral ships were lost through German action, and while British anti-sub-marine measures have made a great decrease in the British losses —99.7 percent of the British convoyed ships arrived in port safely—neutral losses appear to be on the increase.