Balance Sheet

Sinking of British merchant ships last week fell to a ten-week low--only seven vessels of 37,551 tons, compared with a weekly average for the year 1940 of nearly 70,000 tons--the British Admiralty last week announced. The drop was not sudden, for the three preceding weeks had all been relatively low too. But the Admiralty did not claim a trend, did not boast that the counter-blockade was licked. It well knew that recent vile weather had saved many a British ship. In heavy seas torpedoes are apt to be deflected from their marks and U-boat captains apt to seek port; and in flying weather in which ceiling, visibility and temperature all approached zero, bombers could not operate far over the Atlantic.

If the drop, even though fortuitous, was good news, the implications of another Admiralty announcement were much more important:

> In 1940 Britain and her Allies lost 3,519,408 tons of shipping.

> Total Allied losses since the beginning of the war: 1,067 ships of 4,248,558 tons.

Britain began the war with 21,215,621 tons. She took over from nations defeated by Germany (Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, France), chartered and bought from neutrals, and herself completed new ships for a total gain of 9,158,000 tons. Net gain: 4,909,442. But Britain will get no more windfalls from Nazi victims, and her own yards are now busy building and repairing fighting ships. Henceforth her only offset against sinkings will be ships acquired from the U. S. and the Dominions.

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