A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
THOSE critics of the Government who urge that all available ships ought to be used to convey munitions to Russia rather than extra sugar and butter to Britain, evince a laudable spirit of self-abnegation, and if it were a choice between tanks for Russia and more food for ourselves, Russia certainly should come first. But is it? Ships, it must be remembered, are often not just ships. They are ships built for a special purpose, and not fitted for other purposes. Tankers, to take an obvious example, will not carry tanks. Neither will refrigerator-ships. We can use them for our butter without any uneasy feeling that they might be carrying aeroplanes to the eastern front. Sugar-cargoes may not need specialised vessels, but in fact there is no question of using all available ships for Russia. The number of ships that can be so used is unfortunately strictly limited by the port-facilities available. Mr. Churchill has men- tioned, what the map makes plain enough, that there is only one port in European Russia by which we can send in munitions. On the number of ships that can be berthed there at a given moment depends the number of ships that can be used on that particular run, and it is clear that it must be a severely restricted number. There will still be tonnage left for the extra sugar.
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