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Raiders.

11. There has been fresh evidence of enemy raiders during the week. The British tanker British Union has been sunk 600 miles west of the Canaries by a raider, probably as an armed merchant cruiser, and perhaps accompanied by a U-boat. There were also indications on the 19th and the 20th January of two enemy ships in the South Atlantic, though there is no evidence yet as to whether they were raiders or supply ships. Still further south, 1,000 miles to the east- ward of South Georgia, a raider has sunk or captured two large Norwegian whale factory ships and their attendant catchers on the 14th and the 15th January.

Enemy Attack on Seaborne Trade.

NOTE--The following figures give the losses which have been reported during the period the 16th to 22nd January. They should not be confused with the figures shown for the last week in the diagrams of shipping losses attached at the back of the Résumé, which show the actual losses for each complete week since the outbreak of war, and are only made up to midnight of Sunday-Monday of the week immediately preceding that covered by this Résumé. Later figures are not included in the diagrams, as they are likely to be unreliable, owing to delayed notifications and uncertainty regarding the result of recent attacks.

12. Seventeen vessels and one small craft, a total of 94,885 tons, have been reported lost by enemy action; of these, nine were British (40,482 tons) and nine Allied (54,403 tons). Seven of these ships were sunk during the period under

review.

Six ships (39,043 tons) were sunk by U-Boat, two in the South Atlantic and the remainder in the North-Western Approaches. Four ships and a tug (22,296 tons) were sunk by aircraft. Three ships (31,434 tons) were sunk by enemy surface raiders, one 650 west of the Canaries and the two Norwegian whale factory ships in the Antarctic.

Nineteen ships, all but one of which are British, are reported damaged. Details of ships sunk and damaged are given in Appendix I.

The British ships Zealandic (10,578 tons) and Almeda Star (14,935 tons) are known to have been attacked in the North-Western Approaches on the 15th and 17th January respectively, and search for them by H.M. Ships has so far been without result.

Protection of Seaborne Trade.

13. During the week ending noon, Wednesday, the 22nd January, 633 ships, including 136 Allied and 15 neutral, were convoyed, of which three were lost by enemy action. Total losses in convoy since commencement of hostilities are": British 171, Allied 28, Neutral 16, total 215; giving a ratio of losses to numbers convoyed of British 1 in 238, Allied 1 in 206, Neutral 1 in 269, total 1 in 236. One battleship, one aircraft-carrier, 10 armed merchant cruisers, 39 destroyers and 43 sloops and corvettes were employed on escort duties.

Imports into Great Britain by ships in convoy during the week ending the 18th January totalled 764,232 tons, compared with 469,521 tons during the previous seven days, and an average of 663,517 tons for the previous ten weeks. Oil imports, in sixteen tankers, were 179,075 tons compared with 85,284 tons in nine tankers during the week ending the 11th January. Mineral imports amounted to 285,439 tons, of which 189,678 were steel, iron-ore, pig-iron and scrap iron, and there were large quantities of copper, zinc and phosphates. The corresponding figures for the previous seven days were 140,208 tons and 97,223 tons. Timber imports were 52,599 tons, and cereal imports were 90,977 tons, eight ships being fully laden with grain. Other food imports totalled 60,475 tons, of which 13,009 tons were refrigerated and tinned meats, bacon and hams, 12,561 tons were sugar, 5,398 tons were tea, and 2,631 tons were fruit. There were also 24,437 packages of onions, 3,000 bags of almonds, 17,075 half Wine and spirit chests of Seville oranges, and 52,500 cases of citrus fruit. imports totalled 7,255 tons. Among manufactured goods entering the country were 2,839 tons of machine tools.

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