CONVOY SYSTEM

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20987, 14 December 1939, Page 10

CONVOY SYSTEM

SUCCESS OF BRITAIN LESSON TO NEUTRALS RESENTMENT IN GERMANY IL- (Official Wireless) (Received Dec. 14, 3.15 p.m.) RUGBY, Dec. 13 The regular and successful working of the convoy system, to which Mr Winston Churchill recently referred, continues to ensure with little diminution the maintenance of Britain’s seaborne trade. The smoothness with which the system operates, under the protection of powerful units of the British Navy, :s such that the achievement attracts but little attention in the daily press. The snipping circles of the neutral States however, appreciate the significance of this unsensational evidence of the strength of the British Navy. That the safe arrival in convoy of hundreds of British and neutral vessels at their destination has equally impressed Germany is shown by the fruitless efforts of German propaganda to attempt to prove to neutral shipowners that the convoy system is unsafe for their vessels. The real purpose of this propaganda is, however, well understood, for unaccompanied ships provide an easier mark for the torpedoes of the German submarines, which hesitate to risk the depth charges and other defensive weapons of the vessels escorting the convoy.

The enemy’s indiscriminate methods of submarine warfare inevitably claim occasional victims, and in view of the difficulties which merchant vessels experience in maintaining convoy formation in thick weather or in manoeuvring in roadsteads congested by heavy arrivals accidents are from time to time unavoidable. It is increasingly clear that Germany strongly resents the resort by neutrals to the precautions forced upon them, including the chartering of ships to the British Government. Germans Run Amok Mr Churchill in the House of Commons last week, said the German Navy, when driven off the shipping of their declared enemy, “consoled themselves by running amok among the shipping of neutral nations.” This ought to encourage the neutral States to charter their ships to Britain for the duration of the war, when they can be sure of making larger profits than they ever made in peace and have a complete guarantee against loss. The Ministry of Shipping has already arranged for the charter of several millions of tonnage, and it seems probable that this healthy process will continue, to the neutral and general advantage. GERMAN RAIDER VICTIM OF BAD LUCK / STORY OF ADMIRAL SCHEER (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, Dec. 12 The Rome radio to-day cryptically announced: “The German pocket battleship Admiral Scheer has been the victim of bad luck in the South Atlantic.” The Daily Mail says the British Admiralty knows nothing of bad luck overtaking the Admiral Scheer. The Admiral Scheer was reported to have sunk the British steamer Clement off the coast of Brazil on September 30, and the small tanker Africa Shell off the East African coast on November 16. It was thought she might have been the vessel which attacked the Blue Star liner Doric Star in the Atlantic on December 3 or 4. The Rome radio may have meant that the Admiral Scheer had been “the victim of bad luck” in that her raids on Allied shipping had met with little success. s STEAMER SUNK LOSS OF RUSSIAN SHIP 87 DEAD, HUNDREDS MISSING (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) {Received Dec. 14, 3.15 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 13 The Tokio correspondent of the American press states that 87 are known to be dead and from 200 to 500 are missing as a result of the sinking of the Russian steamer Indigirka off Hokaido. The cause is unknown. The Karafuto Maru rescued 390 passengers and crew. GERMAN SHIP SUNK SOVIET SUBMARINE BLAMED (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, Dec. 13 A submarine, believed to be Russian, sank the German steamer Bolheim, of 3324 tons, in the Gulf of Bothnia, says a message from Stockholm. The captain and two of the crew were -killed and 29 survivors reached the shore in a lifeboat. JAPAN AND RUSSIA WGOTIATIONS IX JANUARY (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, Dec. 13 The Japanese Foreign Office spokesman said that Japan would start negotiations with Russia on January 10 for a trade agreement between the two countries, says a report from Tokio. He added that Japan still hoped for a new agreement with the United States before* January 26, when the present treaty ends. ,