NOTABLE SUCCESS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20120, 14 December 1939, Page 5

NOTABLE SUCCESS

CONVOY SYSTEM | TRADE MAINTAINED PROTECTION BY NAVY BENEFIT TO NEUTRALS GERMANY IMPRESSED (Eire. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless ) Reed. 12 noon RUGBY, Dec. 13. The regular and successful working of the convoy system to which the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr; Winston Churchill, recently referred, continues to ensure with little diminution the maintenance of Britain’s sea-borne trade. * The smoothness with which the system operates under the protection of powerful units of Britain’s navy is such that the achievement attracts but little attention in the daily press. Shipping circles of neutral countries, however, appreciate the significance of this unsensational evidence of the strength of the British navy. That the safe arrival in convoy of hundreds of British and also neutral vessels at their destination has equally impressed Germany is shown by the fruitless efforts of German propaganda to attempt to prove to neutral shipowners that the convoy system is unsafe for their vessels. The real purpose of this propaganda is, however, well understood, for unaccompanied ships provide an easier mark for the torpedoes of German submarines, which hesitate to risk the depth charges and other defensive weapons of the vessels escorting the convoy. Accidents Unavoidable The enemy’s, indiscriminate methods of submarine warfare inevitably claim occasional victims, and in view of the difficulties which merchant vessels experience in maintaining convoy formation in rough weather, or in manoeuvring in roadsteads congested by heavy arrivals, accidents are from time to time unavoidable. It is increasingly clear that Germany strongly resents the resort by neutrals to the precautions forced upon them, including the chartering of ships to the British Government. Mr. Churchill, in the House of Commons last week, said that the German navy, when driven off the shipping oi their declared enemy, “consoled themselves by running amok among the shipping of neutral nations. This ought to encourage neutrals to charter their ships to Britain for the duration of the war, when they can be sure of making larger profits than they ever made in peace, and have a complete guarantee against loss.” The Ministry of Shipping already has arranged the charter 0 f several millions of tonnage, and it seems probable that this healthy process will continue to neutral and general advantage.