“ACHILLES HEEL”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 577, 1 February 1929, Page 9

“ACHILLES HEEL”

British Merchantmen in Wartime PROBLEM OF OIL SUPPLY (Australian and N.Z. Press Association) (United Service) Reed. 9.5 a.m. LONDON, Thursday. The problem of supplying oil for our merchant ships in the next war has been raised by Sir Norman Leslie, one of the organisers of the great convoy system in 1917. The increasing use of oil in the mercantile marine since the war, which was at present fraught with difficulty, in wartime would be a positive danger, he said. “We needed 9,200,000 tons of oil in peace-time, of which we imported 7,200,000. We would need 30,000,000 tons in wartime. “Where is it coming from?” he asked. “We are losing the control of foreign shipping conferred by British coal-bunkering ports.” He urged the establishment of a body of experts to work out details for the operation of a merchant fleet. The employment of modern aircraft would necessitate the complete reorganisation of the convoy system. Merchantmen would be accompanied by scouting aircraft. The war left nobody in doubt regarding our Achilles heel. We might be certain that our enemies would concentrate on the destruction of our merchant fleet. No conceivable means of attack would be neglected. Bombs would be placed among cargo, or in the bunkers at neutral ports. Gas, mines, aircraft, submarines, and gunfire would all be called into play, as well as anything else man’s ingenuity could devise.