AMERICA'S NEED OF TONNAGE

Taranaki Daily News, 13 December 1917, Page 3

AMERICA'S NEED OF TONNAGE

0,000,000 REQUIRED ANNUALLY. LORD "nORTIICLIFFE'S STATEMENT. New York, Oct. 2. The United Press publishes the following inlcrvie-.v with Lord Northeliffe: The moat .urgent news that has crossed the Atlantic since I arrived in this, country at the beginning of Jujie, Lord Northclifl'e said, is the official statement by Sir Joseph Maclay, the British Controller of Shipping, to the effect that '•unless the United Slates faces the shipping problem and constructs 0,000,000 shipping annually, the military efforts of the United States will be crippled from the start." This is tho solemn warning of Sii Joseph himself. It has passed the Censor. Set aside all German boastings. Put away from you the idea i\.:.i Great Britain who is increasing her own food production, can be starved out. The writing..on the wall should arouse every thinking American to the greatest problem the world has ever faced—the transport across 3,000 miles of water of the new American Army which already amounts to more than a million munition plants, aeroplanes, observation balloons, hospitals, ambulance, convoys, doctors nurses, machine-guns, butchers, bakers, shoemakers, men of every trade, railroad engineers interpreters, organisers, and distributors of stores, clothing, horses, mules, fodder, bookkeepers, complete telephone and ,telegraph- equipments with operators, running into thousands.

Now Sir Joseph Maclay, as British Shipping Controller, plainly says thai unless 6,000.000 tons of shipping'is built in the United States yearly you will not be able to transport those vital needs. You ask me if I agree with Sir Joseph. Ido not profess to have any of the technical knowledge of shipping of the hard-headed Scotsman who was chosen by Mr. Lloyd George for a task that is much more difficult than even that of Food Controller—the control of shipping which is being sunk .more rapidly than it is being constructed, and tint, nnvk you. at a time when tho demand for shipping, owing to the transport needs of the United States Army, is increasing daily. But I maintain that nothing that has happened alters my convictior that the combined shipyards of the Allies and their combined Navies must make a Bitperhv"in effort to ovc-onic the losses and the growing demand as 'to Atlantic transport today, MISLEADING FIGURES. The whole system pf publishing the figures of submarine sinkings by tho Allies is misleading, nr'd I have protested . against it ever .'.inee it wan adopted. Ido r.ot believe that any substeuiia! progress has h?'-'.) made in stopping subin-"' -■ depredations.

I Last week we were told officii; >■ that 'the sinkings by sub; .trine of British shii'- iv the lightest since the policy [of ruthlessncss commenced. Within a few hours l'ie 'flashed news that the sinWngs of French ships over the same period were the hoariest yet recorded. In other words, it is nrob:'h'c that part of tho i ukimri)'- force of Cor;r-.ny that is fighting the greater naval battle in the jlvorlrl off the south eoost of Ire'end was sent to tho French coast to ?,top the arrival of urgent lieccssit'r-, from America for your daily growing Army. Remember that the Army that is principally menaced bv 11-.e policy of operating off the coast of Fi"-""> is the American Army. The BriC.:h Army y. supplied from Gre-t Britain to an increasing extent as to meat, material, and munitions, across the Channel 20 or 30 miles adenur.'ol;- guarded. The ,Frcr.eh and Belgian Armies are at home on their own soil. The giant supplies for your boys have to'travel nearly 3.000 miles anil r.c;v3s t»"> very track of r.uVniarine ruthlessness. Of dancer to actual transports there is prob»My little. Not one Canadian soldier "::-.s yet been lost at sea out of 400.000 boys that have g?:-,R frcrt Canada to France. Submarine attacks on fast,:'ips are rarely successful in these days of zigzagging, camouflage, and big guns. But the world's shipping is sinking so fast and the demands for tonnage, owing In your need for transportation, so rapidly ir-.creasing that the supplies have to be put on any kind of tramp steamer ir-r:-recti', o of its speed. AN AMERICAN PROBLEM. T admit, the comparative success of the convoy "vstem; I admit the bravery and ingei—.ity of the British and American captains of the destroyers; I admit the ■worth of some of Edison's ingenious do. vices. There yet remains tho serious by the greatest authority on shipping in G:\r\t Brita ; -' that" the United States requires oOO.iiOO men to be engaged in shipbuilding; that yon mm 1 - build three times more than the Brltis" have ever built in one year, and five or six times what you have previously accomplished in r. like time. lam well aware of the progress being made here and in Great Britain, but are yon getting the six million tons a. year that our Controller of Shipping stated to be (he minimum : ■ -ssary to make successful what he truly described as your greatest military effort?

Tho problem is almost entirely an American problem. The stoppage of the food supplies from this country to Great Britain would be trying but not fatal. So far as our shipping is con; corned, we are riot only able to look after our own needs, but we are cheerfully allocating much tonnage to France and' Italy. It is vital that hand in hand with the equipment of the [Splendid young men now flocking into your cantonments must raise an army of American shipbuilders. Men who build ships in Great Britain regard themselves, and rightly, as performing equa> service with (lie men who face death in i lie trenches. I believe the time will come when the workers in the shipyard* and factories the men in the mines, and the mercantile sailors will also get. crosses, medals, and ribbons now given to the soldier and to the naval man. Whenever you set eyes on one of your fine young soldiers', send this thought coursing through your brain:—"All his sacrifice will be in vain if you cannot give him the food, arms, and housing he will require in France, every ounce of which has to be transported across the submarine zone." Let me urge, and urge you again, that the increased sinkings of French ships are significant, that what is aimed at by the Germans is the ruin of your effort to supply your o\vn men with everything they' need in France.'