Evening star., 1943-01-22
Cargo Ship Bottle
May Decide War
Enemy Now Striking
AT Most Vulnerable
Part Of Allied Line
By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.

We shall do we'll to reflect soberly and
even prayerfully on the statements made
by Elmer Davis and Admiral Sir
Percy Noble on the submarine situation
in the Atlantic.
The enemy is striking at our most vuI-
nerabe point, made so by the very nature
of the merchant vessel, which cannot be
built to do its job and still be given the
resisting powers of the Warship. For
these resisting powers, as far as under
water attacks are concerned, rest on
infinite experimentation, the dividing
into a veritable honeycomb of those very
interior spaces which, in a merchant
ship, must be used for the Stowage of
cargo.
Yet on these necessarily vulnerable
merchant ships, all our war effort de-
pends, and in great part that or our
Allies.
Consider the latter case first:
Great Britain.
The British people are dependent on
shipping for about 4O-50 per cent of their
food, even at the present diminished
ration. British war industry is de
pendent on shipping for all its industrial
material except coal.
Russia.
Russia has lost vast portions of her
industrial areas, and of her productive
areas for raw materials. While she can
still produce in great quantities, it is
probable that the margin of fighting
power which enables her armies to take
the offensive as they are now doing rests
on supply from overseas, both by way
of the Arctic and the Persian Gulf.
China
China's hope of ever taking the often
sive against the japanese rests on the
chance of building up an air force, and
acquiring at least a certain number of
tanks and motor vehicles, as we'll as
artillery. None of these things can be
produced in China, they must come in
ships and for the present be borne to
China in airplanes from India when
LIley SeG tlleIe.
AS for our fighting men abroad, they
are all dependent on shipping. Our
principal concentrations of power are in
North Africa, in the British Isles and in
the southwest Pacific.
Very little is available in any of these
places in the way of local resources. Our
men must be brought to their destination
by ships; when there, they must be sup
piled by ships; if they take the offensive,
they must be reinforced and supported
by ships; and every point which covers
and projects the long overseas lines of
communication, the island bases of the
Pacific and the Atlantic and the out
posts covering our own coast, must like
wise be supplied by ships.
The overseas enterprises of our Allies
in Africa, in India and Burma and such
necessary operations as the occupation
of Madagascar must likewise be support
ed by ships. Nowhere except in Russia
and to limited extent in Australia, are
the United Nations conducting active
operations from bases which can be de-
scribed, by the farthest stretch of the
imagination, as self-supporting. They
all depend on ships to bring them the
necessities of life, to say nothing of the
necessities of war
There is no substitute for shipping,
for the vulnerable and expensive mer-
chant ship for all these purposes. Air
transport cannot take its place; even if It
were technically possible, there is not time
to develop system of air transport ade-
quate to such enormous responsibilities:
and the cost in materials and manpouer
would be prohibtive. We cannot swap
horses in the middle of the stream: we
are committed to the winning OF this war
by sea power or sea-borne power, and
certainly shall.
The merchant ship Of today repre-
Sents a great many eggs in one basket.
If we assume that the average cargo
capacity of the ships now going into
service is 1000 tons, let us remember
that this represents the full supply of
rations, stores and ammunition of all
types for a reinforced corps Of, say, 10O,-
600 men, for one day of offensive war;
fare. 1t is load which would take 80
average boxcarS to handle or 400 four
wheel cars of European type $50 cargo
planes would be needed to move or 2, 600
standard Army trucks The ship, manned
by perhaps go officers and men, can
carry this load for 5000 miles or more
and carry fuel enough for the journey,
too. 1t Is for these reasons that sea
transport has been, and still is, the most
economical means of moving men and
supplies in bulk over long distances, and
1t is for these reasons, plus the inexor-
able facts Of geography which place
wide oceans between us and our battle
areas, that all our efforts in this war are
so completely dependent on merchant
shipping
Copyright 1913, by New York Tribune, Inc)
Soldier Calls for Cooperation
In Sacrifices of Wartime