AIR PATROLS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 April 1940, Page 5

AIR PATROLS

PROTECTING GERMAN ORE SHIPS NAZI NAVY POWERLESS. MANY FLIGHTS OVER NEUTRAL TERRITORY. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. LONDON, April 1. The Copenhagen correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that General. Goering has instituted a. regular iron ore. patrol, composed largely of bombers, to watch for British submarines and other warships in the vicinity of Scandinavia. It has become clear, the correspondent adds, that the Nazi navy is powerless to protect German merchantmen, and German planes have repeatedly flown over Danish and Norwegian territory during the last few days in the course of the new patrol.

GERMAN STOCKS EFFECT OF BLOCKADE DELAYED. STOCKHOLM, March 31. Political circles state that the Allies have not attached significance to Sweden’s iron ore exports until recently. Germany’s iron ore stocks are enormous, and therefore, until the war flares up on the Western Front, the Germans will not feel the effect of the British blockade against Sweden’s iron ore trade. Even then it wilj. be long before the effect is seriously felt. Sweden insists that she is not reexporting ore to Germany. A Stockholm message published yesterday stated: “Figures of Sweden’s iron ore exports prove that the British blockade and the severe ice conditions of the winter struck a solid blow at the German imports in February. The shipments totalled 100,000 tons, which was one-quarter of the total of February, 1939. Germany normally takes about 80 per cent of Sweden’s ex-, ports.”