SETTING LIMITS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 April 1943, Page 3

SETTING LIMITS

TO THE U=BOAT MENACE IN ATLANTIC PREDICTION BY ADMIRAL KING. SITUATION IN PACIFIC IMPROVED. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, April 27. The submarine menace will be controlled within four to six months, the Comma nd er-in-Chief-of the United States Fleets, Admiral King, told the United States Chamber of Commerce. He added: “Submarine sinkings cannot be wiped out, but we will reduce the spread between sinkings and buildings and will continue on the up grade.”

He declared that the situation in the Pacific was much better than a year ago, stating that the Japanese were confronted with a submarine menace in the Pacific similar to that of the United Nations in the Atlantic.

Admiral King declared: “The onward march of the Japanese has been stopped. Enemy shipping in the Pacific is badly pinched, and we are going to pinch it even more.” The Navy Department is endeavouring to clear up conflicting reports of shipping losses and has issued the statement that “On the basis of known construction, the Allies in 1942 suffered a net loss of something more than 1,000,000 tons gross of merchant shipping.” This explanation followed a conference at which the Secretary of the Navy, Colonel Knox, and Senator Brewster threshed out the different conclusions of the Truman Committee. Colonel Knox, in a statement, said that the 1,000,000 tons loss took into account all losses—not submarine killings alone —but did not include all the United Nations building because the statistics were not available. He added that the records of the whole war showed that the submarine was responsible for slightly more than 50 per cent of the total sinkings.

President Roosevelt has issued a proclamation calling on the American people to observe May 22 as a national Maritime Day.