Not A Surrounded Fortress

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 178, 29 July 1940, Page 7

Not A Surrounded Fortress

Mr. J. L. Garvin, in the "Sunday Observer," writes: "The Nazis epeak of a siege of Britain, but let us distinguish. We are assailed, but we are not shut up. We are neither invested nor beleaguered. Our island is a fortrees, with a difference. Its maritime connections are open as wide as they ever were. Its shipping and its sea power range the oceans. "After more than ten months of war, our mercantile tornage is larger than ever. The navy in all its annals has never held a more potent command. The military forcee of the Empire can be carried surely from every part, or to any part. Without ceasing, supplies from every continent from round the globe come to our island.

"We ara fighting this war near and far, not as a surrounded fortress, but as an historic world Power, which has Britain ae its main base. If Britain were besieged in the ordinary sense, being surrounded, she would not be ready, and her world communications would be cut off by that fact;" the whole Empire would be broken. Instead of that, we retain, both by sea and air, the widest powers of attack and counter-attack. This, both Germany and Italy know to their cost.

"While we hold out at home, we can create a new military power, one able to take a strong offensive overseas in the wider battle for the Empire," Mr. Garvin continued. "These truths apply directly to the immense theatres of the Mediterranean, North Africa and beyond. These should be our arenas of initiative attack."