DELIVERING THE GOODS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 January 1942, Page 4

DELIVERING THE GOODS

ALL RESTS ON SEA POWER. When military operations are under discussion, it rarely enters anyone's mind to suggest that the Navy is engaged upon them every minute of the day. writes “Strategicus” in the “Spectator.” Naval men wish for no more recognition than they receive; but if their work and its essential importance to every aspect of our military effort were better recognised, it might be easier to secure a due appreciation of the problem that appears now to dominate the whole war situation. Everything turns now upon supplies, and the communications by means of which they can be transferred to the point where they are most needed. We cannot even reduce this to the work of the British factories, though experience in the last war shows how great industrial expansion can be. It is impossible for us to manufacture sufficient material —tanks, guns, aeroplanes, and the rest —to meet our own needs if we are to hope for victory at all; and it is plain, therefore, that we cannot meet the requirements of Russia at the same time. Our success in the war must depend upon the production of the United States. In both directions, however, we are faced with the problem of communications, the security of which is dependent upon British sea-power.,