BRITISH SEAPOWER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 August 1940, Page 6

BRITISH SEAPOWER

TREMENDOUS MOVEMENT OF TROOPS WITHOUT LOSS OF SHIP OR MAN. THROUGH ENEMY ACTION. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 10.40 a.m.) RUGBY. July 31. The Minister of Shipping (Mr R. Cross), broadcasting to the Empire, spoke of the vital importance to Britain of her seapower and shipping. Nearly all the materials essential for Britain’s war effort, he said, came from overseas. Though these materials could no longer be fetched from Scandinavia, the Baltic, the Lbw Countries, or France, it was possible to get them from the Dominions and Colonies and from. North and South America. Referring to the movement of Dominion and Colonial troops from and to all corners of the Empire, Mr Cross said the movement had taken place of “Canadian troops from Canada to Britain, Iceland, and the West Indies, Newfoundland men to Britain for the Army. Navy and for log-cutting, Australian and New Zealand troops to the Middle East and Britain, South Africans to East Africa and Egypt. Indian troops to East Africa, Egypt and Britain, Gold Coast and Nigerian troops to East Africa and Palestinian and Cypriot troops to France and Britain. Moreover, troops from this country have moved to Bermuda. Jamaica. Iceland, St Helena, India, Ceylon. Singapore, Hong Kong, Egypt. East Africa. Mauritius, Malta, Gibraltar. Cyprus. Palestine, Aden, the Gold Coast. Sierra Leone and Nigeria.” In these movements many types of passenger ships have been used and in all these operations not one ship or life has been lost through enemy action.