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The Navies of both sides are the agencies for fighting out this war of convoy and blockade, not only of food supplies but of oil, war materials and metals. (Last week in London and Paris search parties were already on the prowl for junk and scrap.) Reviewing this war's first six months, First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill was able to say last week: "Where do we stand on balance? . . . We lost 63,000 tons of warship or about half the losses in the first six months of the last war." Same time Mr. Churchill admitted, since the well-kept secret had at last leaked out in Germany, that in December the battleship Nelson, once flagship of the Home Fleet, was damaged by a mine, is being repaired. Also he revealed that the battleship torpedoed (but not sunk) after convoying the first Canadians in January was the Barham.
That did not change the six-month Naval casualty figures:
Allies Germany
Battleships 1 0
Aircraft Carriers 1 0
Light Cruisers 0 1
Heavy Cruisers 0 1
Destroyers 6 0
Submarines 2 50
Others 16 9
Blockade. Up for cross-examining by the House of Commons last week was 44-year-old Ronald Hibbert Cross, Minister of Economic Warfare on how this most important job was being handled. Geoffrey Mander, a Liberal colleague of Lion Lloyd George, wanted to know whether any approach had been made to the U. S. to persuade that great nation against selling to other countries (notably Russia) materials which might be passed on to Germany.
"The United States," replied careful Mr. Cross, "is a neutral country and is well aware of the circumstances, and I do not think it would be the best course to make any direct approach."
Mr. Mander's question sprang from the fact that U. S. exports to Russia, after rising rapidly all through the last six months of 1939, in January reached the highest figure for any month since January 1931 (TIME, Feb. 19). Germany has been boasting about Russia not only as an inexhaustible source of materials, but also a conveyor of supplies from elsewhere, over the Trans-Siberian Railroad, even over the Old Silk Road and other caravan trails.
Minister Cross assured Parliament that no such "leak" in his blockades of Germany need be feared: the distance and cost of such routes would be too great for bulky shipments. Nevertheless, he said, "The possibilities of checking such shipments are being considered." He let members think about, but by no means promised, a British blockade of Vladivostok, contraband inspection ports at Singapore and Hong Kong.
Lubricating oils are something the Allies particularly hate to see leak into Germany. Last week from Mr. Cross's Ministry to leading U. S. oil companies went a series of extremely polite, individual (not form) letters begging that no more lubricants be sold, for the time being, to Belgium, The Netherlands and Denmark, who have bought all the lubricants Great Britain thinks they need just now. To the U. S. sailed two Cross emissaries—Professor Charles Rist, formerly of the Bank of France, and Frank Ashton-Gwatkin of the British Foreign Office—to try to explain to irritated U. S. businessmen the finer points and necessities of Economic Warfare.