DARKEST PERIOD PASSED

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23482, 10 November 1941, Page 5

DARKEST PERIOD PASSED

MR CHURCHILL’S STATEMENT

BRITAIN’S RESOLUTION UNCONQUERABLE

(8.0. W.) RUGBY, November 7. “Britain has passed through the darkest and most perilous period of the present struggle, and is once more master of her own destiny.” This was the gist of a heartening statement by Mr Churchill at Hull today, in the course of a three-hour tour of the Tyneside, inspecting the war effort. Referring to the Eastern Front, Mr Churchill said; “The Russians are struggling and battling vigorously, with results which are particularly significant. On the other side of the Atlantic, our kith and kin are struggling to see that we get all we need, and we find ourselves in a goodly company. “Wo are moving forward and looking forward, however long the road,” he added. “The resolution of the British people is unconquerable. Neither sudden nor violent shocks, nor long, cold, tiring, and provoking strains and lulls will alter our course. No country made more strenuous efforts to avoid being drawn into this war, but I dare say we shall be found really anxious to prosecute it when some of those who provoked it are talking vehemently about peace. “We are all resolved to go forward. We were emphatically resolved when.

a year and a half ago, we found ourselves absolutely alone, the only chappion of freedom in the whole world which remained in arms. We found ourselves with hardly any weapons left. “We had rescued our army from Dunkirk, but it had come back stripped of all the accoutrements and all the apparatus of war. Every country in the world outside this island and the Empire, to which we were indissolubly attached, had given it up—had made up their minds that our life was ended and our tale told. But, by unflinchingly despising the manifestations of power and threats by which we were on all sides confronted, we have come through that dark, perilous, passage, and now we are once again masters of our own destiny. Nor are we any longer alone. • “As I told the House of Commons, our steadfast conduct and the crimes of the enemy have brought other great nations to our side,” continued Mr Churchill. “They are driving forward supplies across the ocean, and aiding us to strike down and strangle all foes that molest the passage of these supplies. “I have never given an assurance of a speedy, easy, or cheap victory. On the contrary, as you know, I have never promised anything but the hardest conditions, great disappointments and many mistakes, but I am sure that, in the end, all will be well for us in our island home, will be well for the world, and there will be a crown of honour to those who endured and never failed, which history will accord them for having set an example to the whole human race.” “Britain Will Not Flinch” Mr Churchill addressed factory workers at Sheffield to-day. “This foul war, forced upon us by human wickedness, has gone on for more than two years,” he said. “None of us can say at what moment the bugles will sound the cease fire. But of this we may be sure—that however long and hard it may be the British nation and the British commonwealth of nations will come through united, fresh, stainless, and unflinching. “When we look back upon all that has passed since the peace was broken by the brutal assault on Poland, we see that many, many disappointments have occurred and very often mistakes, but still when we look back to 15 months ago, and remember that then we were alone, then we were almost unarmed, and when we see now our armed forces developing in strength and getting into their hands for the first time weapons equal to those used against them by the enemies of freedom, when we look across the wide stretches of Europe and see tiiat great warrior, Stalin, at the head of his valiant men, when' we look eastward across the ocean and see America sending- out her ships so that they may carry, right to the front line without regard to the opposition they may encounter, the weapons, munitions, and food we require, we see in them a message of inspiration. We are sure that before we get to the end of the road we shall all be together."