~ THE CHINA MAIL, DECEMBER 31, 1940.
for a
Stan Laurel and Oliver Herdy go down to the sea vacation, but they take a beat that's not seaworthy, which causes a riot of laughs in "Saps At Sea," at the King's Theatre.
BRITAIN MAY HAVE TO USE HER BATTLESHIPS
THE GERMAN sea blockade may soon force the British government to alter a fundamental policy of the Royal Navy and throw battleships of the line into the risky business of convoying merchant ships. The British almost came to that pass in the world war when, as the American Admiral Sims put it, submarine warfare had starved the British to within six weeks of surrender.
7
But the convoy system answer-
Nearby Scandinavia and ed the U-boat. At first destroyers France supplied many vital war were assigned to escort vital sup- supplies and much food to Britain plies.
To-day Battleships stood by for during the world war. later use. The destroyers did so the British must bring in their well, the battleships never were supplies from far-flung posts of used.
empire, South America and
And so the battleships remained United States.
or
ประ
the backbone of the grand fleet. 8. The British had well over carried out time-honoured British | 16,000,000 tons of long-range mer- policy to remain intact, wait for chant shipping at the start of the
world the supreme moment of life
war. They had only death for the empire.
13,000,000 tons when this war This time it is different.
started. Recently they've been los- ing 100,000 tons a week. Even with the neutral shipping they've acquired, the best estimates indi- cate they have only 12,000,000 tons to-day
Threat Is Greater
The submarine raider 'plane menace is a German triple threat greater to-day than in 1917, al- though the British public isn't aware of it yet. Here are eight reasons why:
1. The Germans have the wes- tern tip of France, saving their subs and surface raiders and 'planes hundreds of miles of risky ocean travel from home bases to convoy lanes and back.
of
Two immediate solutions the problem are possible. The first is to get the Irish bases they need so desperately for acroplane observation. But that might mean bloodshed, since Eamon de Valora will never consent to abandon neutrality. The other way is to convoy merchant ships with battleships. 2. The Germans as ever are Battleships ог battle cruisers perfcct co-ordinators. They have'can outrun and outrange Ger- blended the attack of their subs | many's pocket battleships. Battle- and pocket battleships and 'planes ships, or battle cruisers can with- and they are working them all stand the withering attack of dive from the same base-L'Orient. | hombers. With destroyer screens, France.
they have better than an
Risk Still Heavy
even
3. The British gave up by chance to escape the submarines. thair
treaty with Ireland In 1938, naval bases at Lough Bwilly, Berehaven and Cobh. That makes their Bötlifas go But there's still a heavy risk, 200 miles to 400 miles farther | for the Germans have co-ordinated for refueling and repair. ́
their attack. It's like this: all
4. In the world war, the British three weapons are used for both had the help of the French, Ita- observation and attack.
An ob- lian, Japanese, and later the servation plane sights British American fleets for blockade, pa- merchant vessels gathering for trol, and convoy. · To-day they |ronvoy 700 miles out. It reports face the task of blockading back to L'Orient by."radio. Europe, fighting in the Mediter- L'Orient sends out subs and sur- rancan, and patrolling far eastern face raiders and a bombing squa- waters all alone.
dron of 'planes. The surface raid-
5. At the start of the world ers hare far out to sen, risking no war, the British; had more than trap. But their guns can outrange 500 destroyers. Counting the 50 a destroyer convoy. old ships we sent them recently they have no more than 200 des- troyers-to-day.."
Only One Lane
So, the question now up in the British high command is whe then to risk- battleships singly to protect vital war supplies, r The British had fifteen battle- ships when the war started; They 6. Ireland's stubborn neutrality lost the Royal Cak to a submarine. and the German conquest of Three battle cruisers, the Renown, France forced the British to for the Repulse and the Hood, can also sake, two of their convoy lanes- | cope with planer, subs and sur- through the English channel: to face raiders. -- That makes 17. But London and through St. George's five battleships at least are in the channel to the Irish son and L-Mediterranean. One or two' moté, verpool. "That leaves one lane porhaps, in the. For East. around the northern tip of Ireland, Aces in the hole are the five, on which the Germans can con÷| 90-knot « battleships started in centrate.
1937 They are elther ready for
NAZI KULTUR IN FRANCE
Systematic attempts are being made by the Ger- man authorities in Paris to stamp out French cul- ture, according to visitors now in the United States from Switzerland and quoted by Edgar Mowrer, Washington correspon- dent of the Chicago "Daily News."
Three Germans, Kruess, director of the Berlin State Library, Beck- er and Fuchs, also librarians, he Bays. constitute a commission in Paris under whose orders all books felt to be contrary to the Nuzi spirit arc removed from public and private libraries and from bookstalls. At the Kame time, booksellers have been forced to display German propaganda works.
Catholic documents have also been seized, and according to Mowrer's informant the "Ger- mans tried with physical violence to wrest Vatican correspondence from the hands of Cardinal Lien- art, Archbishop of Lille."
action, or are even now with the grand fleet somewhere off north- ern England,
The German triple threat is bait for these battleships, But the em- pire lifeline's in danger. The Bri- fish may have to throw 'em in- and hope for the best.
For-
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