SPEAKING PLAINLY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 August 1941, Page 6

SPEAKING PLAINLY

ABOUT BATTLE OF ATLANTIC. I am going to speak plainly without saying one word of criticism against the magnificent courage and resource of the men of the naval escorts, who are performing a great work in exceedingly difficult circumstances, writes Mr E. Shinwell, M.P., in the “Daily Mail.” It is organisation that I am concerned with, as are many seagoing men with a first-hand knowledge of the facts. Let me summarise. Many of our convoys are too large. They are insufficiently protected. Their slowness makes them a sitting target for U-boat, dive-bomber and commerce-raider. Admiralty directors, with the best intentions in the world, give instructions for sailing and the diversion of particular ships that master mariners would like to challenge. There is need for better armament for individual ships, for greater discrimination in assembling ships, and for the non-inclusion of occasional “nuisance” foreign vessels in British convoys. These disabilities, and others, must be removed by organisation, by speed of movement, and by the supply of adequate naval protection. We must, too, find a ready answer to the attack of the dive-bomb-er, which is as much the hope of the Nazis as is the U-boat.