GREAT IMPRESSION

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20920, 27 September 1939, Page 7

GREAT IMPRESSION

MR CHURCHILL’S DISCLOSURES WELCOMED BY LEADERS AN ENCOURAGING SURVEY (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received Sept. 27, 11.30 a.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 26 A great impression was made in the House of Commons by the statement by Mr Winston Churchill, in which he disclosed the accumulation of measures being taken to meet the U-boat menace and the significant decline in the success attending the German efforts.

Both Opposition leaders, Mr C. R. Attlee (Labour) and Sir Archibald Sinclair (Liberal), welcomed the First Lord’s encouraging survey, which was more telling for his insistence on the need for caution in over-sanguine deductions from the figures which he gave the House, of which the most notable was the fall of British shipping losses due to enemy action. The war, he reminded the House, was full of unpleasant surprises, and they must expect further losses. But members seized upon this candid disclosure of the great improvements in the methods of sub-

marine hunting since the last war, so that work which required 15 or 20 destroyers then could now be done by two, and his affirmation that the British attack on U-boats was only beginning. By the end of October the Navy would have three times the hunting force which was operating at the outbreak of the war.