CONTROL OF THE SEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 May 1941, Page 5

CONTROL OF THE SEAS

“The Axis Powers can never achieve their object of world domination unless they first obtain control of the seas. This is their supreme purpose today and to achieve it they must capture Britain. But. if they fail lo gain control of the seas they will certainly be defeated. Their dreams of world domination will then go by the board and the Qri'minal leaders will suffer inevitable disaster. That is why they are risking everything in desperate attempts to break through to command of the seas. "Once they are limited to continuing a land war their cruel forces of occupation will be unable to keep their heel on the necks of the millions of innocent oppressed peoples on the Continent of Europe, and in the end their whole structure will break into little pieces. Even those Italians and Germans who themselves- have been enslaved will prove to be a powerful force in disrupting the Nazi system. “The Battle of the Atlantic now extends from the icy waters of the North Pole to the frozen continent of the Antarctic. Throughout this huge area there have been sinkings of merchant ships in alarming and increasing numbers by Nazi raiders or submarines. “The blunt truth is, and 1 reveal this with the full knowledge of the British Government, that the present rate of Nazi sinkings of merchant ships is more than three times as high as the capacity of British shipyards to replace them, and it is more than twice the combined British and American output, of merchant ships. “Today we can answer this peril by two simultaneous measures. First, by speeding up and increasing our great shipbuilding programme. Secondly, by helping to cut down the losses on the high seas.