Evening star., 1943-01-09

all our armed David Lawrence.
services. For, after all, unless the
ectane gas and spare parts and 9TH
er necessary supplies for the ground
crews that handle airfields for us
abroad are delivered overseas by
ships, the air planes can become
valueless and airpower diminishes
in its effectiveness.
Ships, to carry food and fuel, ma
terials and weapons to our vast
armies overseas and to our naval
vessels fighting now on two oceans,
are almost paramount in the war
effort. The German high command
realizes this and has sent out scores
OF neutrality-suspicious. as high
AS 300-to harass the shipping lanes
Of the United Nations.
America and Britain are trying to
build replacementS. We are con-
structing approximately as much
tonnage as we have been losing. The
figures vary from month to month
sometimes We are ahead of losses
and sometimes behind. To make a
net gain in the shipping race re-
quires not merely that we increase
our shipbuilding output but that we
find some way to cut down our
losses at the hands of submarines.
Centralized Pool Urged.
There Is still third factor-eco-
nomical use Of existing tonnage. The
Army and Navy each desire, natural
ly, to run their own transport serv-
Ice. They want to control the allo-
cation of ships so that these will be
available at a moments notice for
any emergency or operation of
military or naval character that
might arise.
But civilians familiar with ship
ping, who have been in the ocean
transportation business all their
lives, insist in this war, as they did
In the last war, that all shipping
should be pooled or at least that
centralized management be set up
to control its uses. Authority for
this exists. but there is a natural
disinclination to wait for a full load
when a particular operation must
get under way on scheduled date,
The other side of the matter is that
unless there is more planning and
more pooling we will not increase
our total of tonnage use.
Then there is the question of
anti-Submarine warfare A con-
siderable sentiment has been build
ing up that the problem be taken as
a whole rather than as a segment
of regional operations. Foreign ex-
perts who are familiar with what
Britain has done say that there
ought to be division of activity
devoted wholly to anti-submarine
warfare, including attention to de-
vices and instruments that might
aid in capturing or impairing the
effectiveness of the enemys sub
marines.
Complaints Heard.
Every now and then complaints
are heard that civilians with new
ideas are brushed aside by the bu-
reau, but this is a difficult complaint
to run down because often in re-
jecting device, no reasons can be
given without disclosing what the
Government already has in the lab
oratory, in actual process of de-
velopment.'
Would the submarine menace be
met by a concentration of all pos
sible units in the Government that
can possibly be of aid? Would ton
mage be increased substantially if
the ships were put under central
lied director who would perform for
the Army and Navy the services
they desire-the ships themselves
to remain under Army or Navy op-
Grafton as heretofore, but the load
ing or planning of cargoes to be
handled by civilians?
The transportation job of this
war exceeds any other that we have
ever faced. 1t is bigger than that
which has confronted any other ma
ton. The lend-lease stream of sup
plies which has to be kept going to
dozens of ports overseas, apart from
the cargoes being sent to supply
our Army. Navy and Air Forces, is
20 big that the shipping involved in
the whole operation is tremendous
Shipping. too, has to be allocated
for use in voyages to and from Gen.
trail and South Africa, where i'm
portant raw materials needed by
our own war plants are to be found
Likewise. our relations with Pan
American countries depend on our
ability to continue to keep their in
dustries on survival basis lest the
economic and social disorder so
much desired by Axis agents should
result.
Shipping is the biggest problem
Of the whole war
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