Telegram from London dated March 19th. 1941.
 
      
 
 
On March 8th the German battle cruisers "Scharnhorst" 
      and "Gneisenau" approached one of our convoys north 
      of Cape de Verde island but on seeing our battleship escort retreated. 
      On the morning of the 15th our shipping which was returning independently 
      to America was attacked by them at a point about five hundred 
      miles south-east of Newfoundland where owing to Fog on the Great 
      Banks the shipping is at this season compelled to concentrate. 
      Several ships were sunk by gun fire.
 
      
 
 
2. The attack was renewed on the sixteenth near the same area 
      where three more ships were sunk. In the evening one enemy warship 
      with a tanker in company was sighted by one of our battleships 
      guarding a convoy continuously before dark but was lost sight 
      of as night fell. The presence of these battle cruisers so far 
      to the west of the thirtieth meridian is the latest phase in 
      the battle of the Atlantic. While these powerful raiders are 
      our the whole of our available battleship strength has to be 
      employed on escorting convoys but there are many ships on the 
      seas with no protection.
 
      
 
 
3. The enemy appears to have based himself on the central 
      areas of the North Atlantic where he maintained his supply ships 
      and from thence he carried out raids against our various routes. 
      This central area is almost unknown water to us today because 
      with the multiplicity of calls on our limited resources for convoy 
      escort we have no vessels to spare to round up hostile supply 
      ships and search the areas. Moreover against these two battle 
      cruisers our light forces would be thrown away.
 
      4./