DEMANDS ON NAVY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 July 1940, Page 5

DEMANDS ON NAVY

WELL & GALLANTLY MET FIRST LORD’S SURVEY MEASURES AGAINST BLOCKADE OR INVASION. TRIBUTE TO FRENCH FORCES. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 13. The First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr Alexander, in a broadcast speech, said it was his pride, no Jess than his duty, to state that the demands of this war on the resourcefulness of the Royal Navy had not been surpassed at any time in its long history. Expressing the- regret of the British Government and “its dread sense of responsibility” of the alternatives that led to the naval actions at Oran and Dakar, Mr Alexander said: “Respectfully we pay tribute to the gallantry shown by the French commanders, officers and men who, rightly or wrongly, out of loyalty to what they saw as their duty, felt bound to reject the alternatives offered them to continue their co-operation in the fight against aggression and tyranny or submit to the voluntary demilitarisation of their ships. “It their decision was wrong their gallantry was beyond question, and as First Lord of the Admiralty I pay tribute to them. Their spirit is an augury of a France which will yet arise triumphant like the Phoenix from the ashes to which misguided counsels have reduced their country.” STRENGTH IN BATTLESHIPS. Emphasising the danger to British shipping sailing in all the oceans of the wide world in spite of the German U-boats and bombers if the French capital ships had fallen into enemy hands, Mr Alexander added: “Britain is threatened as she has not been threatened for centuries. Though in the last extremity we will fight from the Dominions, the time required for victory will be much shorter if we continue to Hold these islands. “To defeat invasion and blockade we possess 14 capital ships. The Germans have two or three and the Italians six. The French had nine, the possession of which would have enabled the enemy to attack our convoys throughout the world and have enboldened him to challenge us around Britain, launch the weight of his mechanised forces against us and even threaten the security of American commerce and territory. “Nor have the last few weeks been lacking in other testimony to our unwavering purpose. Night and day our Air Force has been . attacking the enemy in his own territory. Our aircraft and I am proud to say especially the Fleet Air Arm—have carried the war home into Italian territory.

WELL & GALLANTLY MET ITALIANS CHASED HOME.

‘'Notwithstanding the odds against it created by the loss of French naval co-operation, the Mediterranean Fleet has continued to seek battle right up to the gates of the Italian naval bases, and when contact has been made it has been the superior forces cf the enemy and net cur own which have broken off the fight. •'Nor have we been idle in preparing ourselves to meet the gambler’s throw •f an attempted invasion of our shores. Fcr obvious reasons I cannot speak in my detail cf the measures taken against landings in this country, but I can say that the preparation of the defences on cur beaches and elsewhere has proceeded most effectively and has revolutionised the position. “Our naval dispositions are such as to ensure the warmest reception for the various sea-borne forces which the mc-my might launch against our shores. In all these preparations the Admiralty works in the closest and happiest contact with the Air Ministry to ensure that we may have warning of enemy expeditions and destroy and drown them at sea. NAZI INCONSISTENCY. “Lately the German propaganda machine, somewhat inconsistently, has boasted of not merely reducing us by a lightning stroke of invasion, but of wearing us down by a blockade carried out by bomb and torpedo. “As regards the blockade. let me say at once that in the face of an intensified attack by these weapons, which can only be temporary and not sustained, cur mercantile losses have to some extent increased. We have no need to exaggerate this threat—German communiques will do that for us. “Look at the facts. In the six weeks since the new wave of the U-boat campain started the average weekly loss of British, Allied and neutral ships altogether has been 00,000 tons, which is only some 10,000 tons above the average weekly loss for the whole war. The chances of a ship in a British convoy being sunk are still only one in 681. “Our seaports bear daily witness to the fact that our great ocean argosies are still coming home with immense supplies of every conceivable war necessity from all over the world and the coastal convoys are distributing these through the length and breadth of the land. It is a remarkable fact that, in the face of all the difficulties I have enumerated, we are still entering and clearing no less than 2,750,000 tons of shipping from our ports every week.

“What can Germany, despoiling the lands she has overrun, show to match this story? What men cf their own free will will join her cause? What goods reach her from overseas? Where are her merchant ships upon the seas?

“This is not all. The story is not alone one of the defensive measures we arc taking and of the goods reaching us. It is a story of offensive measures also. Every , day we are hitting back harder and harder against the enemy. IN THE MEDITERRANEAN. “Recently one of our forces in the Mediterranean, while being bombed Apr three hours on end by 36 aircraft, destroyed or- put out of action 11 enemy aircraft. “Also in the Mediterranean, the heroic garrison and people of Malta are withstanding almost daily air raids and by gunfire and the gallant skill of the handful/of fighter aircraft on the island have accounted for about 20 Italian aeroplanes. “No fewer than 14 Italian submarines have been destroyed or captured in one month of war, in addition to which Italy has lost three destroyers and sustained heavy damage to a battleship and a cruiser. No wonder they have repaired to a safe distance! "The last three weeks, pregnant with grim issues, have born witness to the deepening cf the spiritual and mural forces cf the British people. DEFENCE OF CIVILISATION. “We are more than ever sustained here at home by cur consciousness cf a British Commonwealth of Nations united as never before in the defence of Christianity, cf civilisation and of the kindly tolerant way of life wiiich we have evolved through the centuries and which has developed an equal cairn and fruitful benevolence among our sister nations in the 'Birtish Commonwealth and in America. "The arsenals, factories, and dockyards of the Commonwealth, daily furnish more and more munitions of war. They are responding to all calls without stint or hesitation. The flow of soldiers, sailors, and airmen to these islands continues in an ever-increasing stream. "In the name of the Navy I pay my tribute of admiration and sympathy for two fine ships belonging to the Empire naval forces which have recently been lost in the common cause —the Canadian destroyer Fraser, sunk in the face, of the enemy during operations] off the coast of France, and the ship I Rathan-of the Indian Navy, destroyed by enemy mines while on patrol. "Nor do I forget for one moment the local assistance given by the fleets of Australia and New Zealand, those island hemes imbibing with the sea air j the seamanship and spirit of independence which are the tradition of all nations so happily situated by Providence. Every dominion and every colony is sending help. “A cause which calls forth such men. such effort, such devotion, and such sacrifice, can never be lost and. especially to those in the great United States of America whose sympathy and understanding and practical help have been welcome to us in our testing time, I sav be cf good cheer for our common ideals. “I would nevertheless ask the great American patient to consider and recognise that the fight we wage today is as much a fight for the preservation of their national inheritance born cl ihc sacrifices evoked by such men ns Jefferson and Lincoln, and of the principles involved in the Declaration of Independence as it is a light for the preservation cf England's green ant pleasant land, of the Charter of Runnytnede. of cur free franchise, and out social services and standards.”