Tons to Live

Being bombed or being invaded does not frighten the British half so much as the thought of being blockaded. Rising fears of this eventuality were made plain last week when the Admiralty admitted the loss of 182,848 tons in the fortnight ended Dec. 8, and Britain continued to cast about anxiously for additional tonnage, present and future.

Arrangements were announced in Washington whereby 60 freighters will be built to British order with all speed in new U. S. yards. Nineteen German freighters seized by the Dutch in Netherlands Indies ports were reported turned over to Britain. And at a press conference in London, Minister of Shipping Ronald Cross dropped a frank hint that contained dynamite.

In U. S. ports there are two German, 27 Italian and a quantity of Scandinavian vessels, all seeking to stay out of Britain's reach. Mr. Cross stated perfectly openly: "I naturally cast a covetous eye on those vessels." He covets also some 300,000 U. S. tons now lying idle in port. He recalled that the U. S. saved Britain's bacon in 1918 not so much by fighting in France as by producing 3,033,000 tons of shipping (up from 998,000 tons in 1917) and he made clear that the sea war was the real, basic war again this time.

Eyebrows in Washington, where President Roosevelt's latest formula for aiding Britain amounted to passive belligerence, rose only slightly at Mr. Cross's implied suggestion. One way to put the Axis and Axis-controlled ships into Britain's hands would be to raise port charges on them prohibitively, take over the ships on default, sell them to Mr. Cross.

Berlin's opinion of the importance of the war at sea was soon made plain. For months, hoping to avoid stirring up additional U. S. sympathy for Britain, German officialdom has spoken to and of the U. S. only in a low voice and in polite terms. Last week it changed its tactics, decided to see whether a threat would work. A Foreign Office spokesman warned: "The entire attention of the German Government is centred upon the American reaction to the Cross proposal. That proposal is nothing other than inciting America to commit a warlike act. I speak with tremendous earnestness. . . ."

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