MERCHANT NAVY

Hokitika Guardian, 9 April 1929, Page 2

MERCHANT NAVY

THE PRINCE’S TRIBUTE. FINE WORK IN THE WAR. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 5. The Prince of Wales, who is Master of the Merchant Navy and Fishing Fleets, has written a foreword to the child and final volume of Sir Archibald Hurd’s work, “The Merchant Navy.” In this the Prince pays a magnificent tribute to the part played by the Mercantile Marine during the war. He says: “Let. us who are land dwellers not mince works over this thing. It is the glory of our Merchant Navy and .vi 11 also be so acclaimed by generations to come that they faced witli>ut hesitation tremendous odds, and the frequent hazard of death, undaunted in spirit to the bitter end. Let us not forget also that had it been otherwise this country of ours must have perished.” The Prince recalls that in the first stage of the war the British seaman recognised that nothing more was being asked of him than to accept the usual hazards of naval conflict. With the arrival on the scene of the su' marine and the indiscriminate use of mines the whole position For the merchant seaman was changed. He found himself faced by hazards and perils such as he had never before experienced or indeed had ever conceived as possible. With the intensification of the enemy campaign the British sailor saw* himself directly involved in tlie whole frightful mechanism of a war whose grinmess reached its climax in the phase of unrestricted submarine attack. Special mention is made of the auxiliary patrol, which in its complete development was maimed by nearly 50,000 officers and men. Describing it as one of the most striking and certainly one of the most successful of Hie many pieces of wartime improvisations which history will place to the credit of tlie British nation, the Prince observes: “Here was indeed a medley of small vessels—trawlers, fresh from our fishing grounds, drifters, whalers, the paddle steamers so familiar to Channel excursionists, steam yachts, motor launches and motor boats. Their hazardous duties were as varied as thentypes. In the long hours of patrol they watched for and hunted German submarines, searched for and dragged mines, fought hostile aircraft, controlled and examined millions of tons of shipping navigating the narrow seas, and in many other ways splendidly seconded tlie efforts of the Grand Fleet. Varied indeed, these craft were in type, but the crews were animated by one heart and one spirit.”