New Hazard

Sky-high with an exploding freighter off a Virginia beach last week went the optimism of Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox. The Secretary had assured the U.S. that the U-boat menace had been thrust back 50 miles from the Eastern Seaboard. Not so.

Late one afternoon bathers, startled by the explosion, saw smoke pouring from the freighter close to shore. They saw U.S. subchasers, planes and blimps scattering bombs and depth charges. Then a second freighter shuddered from an explosion.

Both ships had hit floating mines. A new hazard faced the United Nations, who had acknowledged the loss of 290 vessels since Jan. 14 in eastern coastal waters, the Gulf and the Caribbean.

Total United Nations' losses on all seas may run to 1,000.000 tons a month or more. If the United Nations build 7,500,000 tons of new ships this year, shipping losses may thus run two tons for every one built. The United Nations' pool of 25,000,000 tons of shipping when the U.S entered the war--already inadequate for war needs--may be reduced to less than 20,000,000 tons by year's end.

A German-language broadcast acknowledged that U.S. anti-submarine warfare "assumed particular fierceness in the past week." The U.S. Navy disclosed that it was now convoying merchant ships along the East Coast. But a German newspaper, Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, printed this somber, truthful assurance to Germany: "Let them build all the tanks and train all the soldiers they can. Their efforts will prove worthless as long as they are not supported by the indispensable tonnage."

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