ALLIED OFFENSIVE IN 1943

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23523, 29 December 1941, Page 6

ALLIED OFFENSIVE IN 1943

Mr Churchill Speaks To U.S. Congress SUPREME TASK FACING THE ALLIES

(U.P.A.) WASHINGTON, Dec. 27. “Provided that every effort is made, that nothing is kept back, that the whole manpower, brainpower, and civic virtue of the Eng-lish-speaking world, with all its galaxy of loyal peoples, is applied to the simple but supreme task ahead, I think it will be reasonable to hope that the end of 1942 will see us quite definitely in a better position than we are now, and that the year 1943 will enable ns to assume the initiative upon an ample scale.” This statement on the future course of the war was made by Mr Churchill in the course of his historic address to the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States. He said the forces ranged against the Allies were enormous, bitter, and ruthless, with a vast accumulation of war weapons of all kinds. It was true that the Allies’ own resources in manpower and material were far greater, but only a portion of them had been mobilised and developed. He had been most impressed and encouraged by the breadth of view and • sense of proportion he had found in America. Anyone who did not understand the ties and solidarity of the 'foundation of the United States might easily have expected to find an excited, disturbed, and self-centred atmosphere. with all minds fixed upon the painful episodes of the sudden war which had hit America. After all, the United States had been attacked and set upon by three most powerfully armed dictator States—the greatest military power in Europe, and the greatest military power in Asia. Japan, Germany, and Italy had all declared. and were making, war, and a quarrel had opened which could only end in the enemies’ overthrow or the overthrow of America. But in Washington, in, these memorable days, he had found an Olympian fortitude which, far from being baised upon complacency, was only the mask of an inflexible purpose and proof of a sure, well-founded confidence in the final outcome. They in Britain had the same feeling in their darkest days, and were sure, also, that in the end all would be well.. N Enemy Forces They did not, of course, underrate the severity of the ordeal to which both Britain and the United States had still to be subjected. The forces ranged against them were enormous, and the enemies were wicked and ruthless men. They had set their people on the path of war and conquest, and they knew they would be called to terrible account & they could not beat down by force of arms the people they had assailed. They would stop at nothing. They had a vast accumulation of war weapons of all kinds and they had plans and designs which had long been, contrived and matured. They would stop at nothing that violence oistreachery could suggest. It was quite true that on the Allies’ side the resources in manpower and materials were far greater than those of the enemy, but only a portion had so far been mobilised and developed, and both America and Britain nad much to learn in the prosecution of the war. Without doubt, a time of tribulation was before them. In that same time some ground would be lost which would be hard and costly to regain. Many disappointments and unpleasant surprises awaited them. Mary of them would afflict them before the full marshalling of their latent power could be accomplished. For 20 years the youth of Britain and America had been taught that war was an evil thing, which it was, and that it would never come again; but that had been proved false. For the best part of 20 years the youth of Germany, Japan, and Italy bad been taught that aggressive war was the noblest duty of the citizen, and that it should be undertaken as soon as the necessary, weapons and organisation had been made. Total War Efficiency The democracies had performed their part and worked for peace. Their enemies had plotted and planned for war, which naturally placed Britain and later the United States at a disadvantage which only time, courage, and untiring exertion could correct. They had, indeed, to be thankful that so much time had been granted to them. If Germany had tried to invade the British Isles after the French collapse in June, 1940, and if Japan had declared war on the British Empire and the United States at about the same date, no one could say what disaster and agonies might not have been their lot. Now, at the end of December, 1941, their transformation from easy peace to total war efficiency had made very great progress. The steady flow of munitions in Britain had already begun. Enormous strides had been made in the conversion of American industry to military purposes, and now that the United States was at war it would be possible for orders to be given every day which a year or 18 months hence would produce results in war power beyond anything that had been seen or foreseen in the dictator States. Some people might be momentarily depressed when, like President Roosevelt, he spoke of a long and hard war, but people had got to know the truth, sombre though it might be. After all, they were doing the noblest work in the world—-not only defending their hearths and homes, but the cause of freedom in every part of the world. The question of whether deliverance came in 1942, 1943, or 1944, fell into its proper place in the annals of human history. The democracies were now masters of their fate. The task was not beyond their strength, with its pangs and toil, and not beyond their endurance. As long as they had faith in their cause and'unconquerable will-power, salvation would not be denied them. Not all tidings would be evil; on the contrary, the glorious defence of their native soil by the* Russian armies had already struck mighty blows at the enemy. Wounds had been inflicted upon the Nazi tyranny and system that had bitten deep and would inflame and fester not only the Nazi body but the Nazi mind. The boastful Mussolini was now but a lackey and a serf to his master’s will. He had inflicted great sufferings and wrong upon his own industrious people. He had been stripped of all his African Empire. Foretaste for Enemy The British Armies of the Middle East, which were so weak and illequipped at the moment of the French desertion, now controlled all the region from Egypt to Benghazi and from Aleppo and Cyprus to the sources of the Nile. For many months they had devoted themselves to preparing to take the offensive in Libya. A very considerable battle had been proceeding there for the last six weeks and had been most fiercely fought on both sides. Owing to the difficulty of sup§lies, the British command had never een able to bring numerically equal forces to bear upon the enemy. Therefore, they had to rely on the superiority of quality in tanks and aircraft, both British and American. For the first time, he said, they had fought the enemy with equal weapons. For, the first time they had made the enamy feel the sharp edge of those

tools with which he had enslaved Europe. The armed forces of the enemy, besides aircraft, amounted to about 150,000 men, of whom one-third were German. General Auchinleck set out to destroy totally those armed forces, and Mr Churchill said he had reason to believe that in the end that aim would be fully accomplished. He was privileged to place before Congress at that moment, now that America had entered the war, proof that with proper weapons and proper organisation the British forces were able to beat the life out of the savage Nazis. What the enemy had suffered was only a sample and a foretaste of what the Allies had to give him and his accomplices wherever they met them in every quarter of the world. The 1 fe-lihe of supplies joh.ing Britain and the United States across the ocean was operating steadily and freely, in spite of all the enemy could do. It was a fact that the British' Empire was now incomparably stronger and was growing stronger every month. Lack of Equipment The long-planned and sudden onslaught by Japan had presented both America and Britain with grievous problems. If people asked in England, as they had a right to ask, why it was that the Empire had not more modern equipment in Malaya and the East Indies, he could only point to the victory General Auchinleck had gained in the Libyan campaign. Had the gradually growing resources in Libya beep dispersed in Libya and Malaya, the Allies would have been found wanting in both places. If the United States had been found at a disadvantage in various parts of the Pacific, at Pearl Harbour, the Philippines, and elsewhere, it was because of the aid that had been given for the defence of the British Isles, for the Libyan campaign, and, above all, in the Battle of th Atlantic, ;.pon which everything depended, and which had been successfully maintained in consequence. Of course, it could have oeen much better, but considering how reluctantly they had brought themselves to largscale preparations and how long those preparations took, the choice was either to disperse their hitherto limited resources, marshalled by Britain in War and the United States in peace, or to concentrate them at the most vital points. He believed that history would bear out that on the whole—and it was on the whole that such matters hj:. i to be judged—the choice made was right. Now that Britain and America were linked in the righteous comradeship of arms, and now that they were joined in a common resolve, a new scene opened on which a steady light would glow and brighten. Mortal Stakes Many people had been astonished that Japan should, in a single day, have advanced into war against the United States and and that she had not chosen Britain’s moment of weakness 18 months ago. In spite of the- losses the Allies had suffered and the' further punishment they would appeared an aßßMitt aliiKbut it was prudent had made very liareful calculations. Nevertheless, there might be another explanation. It was known that for many years past the policy pf Japan had been dominated by secret societies, organisations of junior, officers of the army and navy, who had enforced their will upon successive Japanese Cabinets and Parliaments by the assassination of any Japanese statesman who opposed or did not sufficiently further their aggressive policy. It might be that those societies, dazzled and dizzy with their own schemes of aggression and the prospect of early victory, had forced their country, against its better judgment, into war. They had certainly embarked upon a very considerable undertaking. (Laughter.) After the outrages that been committed upon the Allies at Pearl Harbour, in the Pacific islands, the Philippines, Malaya, and Dutch East Indies, the Japanese must now know that the stakes for which they had decided to play were mortal. Looking at the resources of the United States and the British Empire, compared with those of Japan, and remembering those of China, which had so long and valiantly withstood aggression and tyranny, and observing also the Russian menace hanging over Japan, it became still more difficult to reconcile Japan’s actions with prudence, or even with sanity. “What kind of a people do they think we are?” asked Mr Churchill. “Is it possible they don’t realise that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?” (Prolonged applause and cheers.) View of Future Mr Churchill said he would turn for a moment from the turmoil and convulsions of the present to the broader spaces of the future. Now the Allies were together, facing a group of mighty foes who sought their ruin. Together they were defending all that free men held dear. Twice in a single generation, the catastrophe of world war had fallen upon them. Twice in their lifetimes had the long arm of Fate reached out across the ocean to bring the United States into the forefront of the battle. Had they stuck together after the 1 last war and taken common measures for their safety, this renewed attack need never have fallen upon them. Did not they owe it to themselves, to their children, and to all mankind to make sure that those catastrophes would not engulf them * third time? It had been proved that pestilences might break out in the Old World which carried their destructive ravages into the New World and from which the New World could not escape. Duty and prudence alike demanded that the germ-centres of hatred and revenge should be constantly and vigilantly curbed and treated in good time, and that adequate organisations should be set up to make sure that the pestilence could be controlled at its earliest beginnings before it spread and raged throughout the entire earth. Five or six years ago it would have been easy, without shedding,,a drop of blood, for the United States and Great Britain to have insisted on the fulfilment of the disarmament provisions of the treaty which Germany signed after the Great War. That also would have bfeen an opportunity to make available to the Germans those raw materials which the Atlantic Charter declared could not be denied to any nation, victor or vanquished. That chance had gone, but hammer blows were needed to bring Britain and America together. Using other language, he would say that a man must indeed have a blind soul who could not see that some great purpose and design was being worked out on earth, for which they had the honour to be the faithfdl servants. It was not given to them to peer into the mysteries of the future. For his country, pure and inviolate, ho pledged that in the days to come the British and American people would for their own safety and the good of all walk together in majesty, in justice, and in peace.

RECEPTION GIVEN TO SPEECH

“A Great Moment In History” CONGRESS ‘WILDLY ENTHUSIASTIC (Received December 28, 10 p.m.) (U.P.A.-8.0.W.)- LONDON, Dec. 27. "Mr Churchill’s speech moved Congress members to wild bursts of enthusiasm and deep chuckles of mirth,” says the Washington correspondent of the "New York Times.” “The speech was typical Churchill, full of bubbling humour, bitter denunciation of the totalitarian enemies, stern courage, and hard facts. Many Congress members called the speech the greatest they had ever heard. “After leaving the Capitol, Mr Churchill remarked: ‘I want to see the crowd, too.’ Then he left his baffled secret service guards and instead of boarding his car walked alone across the street towards the roped-off crowds and smilingly waved his hat. “He was rewarded with tremendous cheering. When his car passed through the thronged streets he was repeatedly cheered.” Reports of the world-wide appreciation of Mr Churchill’s speech are being received in London, and American opinion appears to be summed up in the words of the “New York Herald Tribune,” which says: “The glowing phrase, measured cadence. acrid sarcasm and high conviction that Churchill as brought to the common cause of freedom for humanity was never more impressive nor more moving than when he spoke to Congress, This was a great moment in history when yesterday he spoke with us and as one of us to both peoples and to all now joined with them. “Here is unity for war of an effective and practical kind, meaning more than all the plans, projects, and exhortations could mean.” Listeners throughout Britain have been thrilled not only by the inspiring message delivered by Mr Churchill but also by the warmth of the welcome he was given. The cheers which greeted him throughout the speech are felt here to demonstrate that friendship of the two peoples which guarantees complete sympathy, and understanding, and support of the joint struggle. The “Manchester Guardian,” commenting on the reception given to Mr Churchill, which was heard in Britain by midions of listeners, says: “The applause of Congress showed better than a score of dispatches how American feeling runs—a great reception for Mr Churchill, cheers for Russia and China, and crashing cheers fpr a fight to the finish. The Americans are all set.” It is reported from Ottawa that there is great activity as preparations go forward for a great welcome to Mr Churchill for his address to the Canadian Parliament on Tuesday, The Canadian Prime Minister (Mr W. L. Mackenzie King) announced that Mr Churchill would address a meeting of the Canadian Parliament at Ottawa at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Mr Mackenzie King added that Mr Churchill would spend two days in Ottawa.

DAY OF PRAYER IN U.S.

STATEMENT ISSUED BY DR. LANG (8.0. W.) RUGBY, December 27. The following statement has been issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr. Lang); ‘‘Mr Roosevelt has requested his, pepple .to, Year’s Pay as a .oatipnal day of#ayer for the blessing and guidance of Almighty God as they enter the ordeal of war. ' . “I feel sure there will be a general desire on the part of the citizens of this country to associate themselves on thaf day in their private prayers and wherever this may be possible in their public prayers. “I am authorised to say that His Majesty the King hopes that in this way many of his own people may be able to join with the people of the United States in prayer for them and their country and for the cause in which they are now our allies and comrades.”

EVERYONE NOW IN DANGER

WARNING TO AUSTRALIAN PEOPLE SYDNEY, December 26. In what he described as a “straight talk,” the Prime Minister (Mr J. Curtin), in a national broadcast to-night, told Australians that the Government would make such decisions as it considered vital for the security of the Commonwealth. The time for appeals had gone. “We are all in danger," said Mr Curtin. “No part of the Australian coast is invulnerable. If Australia is attacked by Japan certain populous centres will be bombed. Circumstances will arise where the people can give valuable information to the nearest military commander, but the greatest care must be taken that such information is authentic. “There is no need for panic. The war has come to Australia and the people must conduct themselves accordingly. No person, whatever his place or power, will be permitted to hamper the war effort. There must be no qualified war effort. It must be 100 per cent, on everybody’s part." Mr Curtin said that the recent premiers’ conference began and ended in a spirit of national unity, the premiers of all states undertaking to work in the closest co-operation with the Commonwealth, ensuring the maximum production of war materials and equipment, together with a vigorous defence of the country. The Australian Government, too. was playing a prominent part in setting up a Ft Eastern War Council, which would make on the spot decisions in reea-d t? th? conduat of the war in the Pacific. AIR POSITION IN PACIFIC AUSTRALIA NEVER SATISFIED (8.0. W.) RUGBY, December 26. Reports have been received in London of a broadcast by the Prime Minister of Australia (Mr J. Curtin), in which he said: “Australia never was satisfied with the air position in the Pacific. The question facing the Allies is that of production, and Australia is rapidly taking up the slack. “Britain, America, and Australia have moved, and while I am unable to disclose the precise movements of forces, I am greatly encouraged at the growing reinforcements which would be ranged on our side. In the last 18 days we have taken stock, and although the conclusion is not glowing with optimism, there is sober confidence. ♦ ‘The meeting in Washington shows that the democracies are fully alive to the need for decisive action in directing the Pacific operations. The decisions of the Far East War Council demand action and support, which is being given by Australia, the United States. China. Russia, the Netherlands. Britain, and her Allies. We are mobilising our forces against the Axis.’’

FRENCH ISLANDS OCCUPIED

CANADA CONDEMNS ACTION POSSIBLE DIPLOMATIC MOVE NEW YORK, December 26. The Prime Minister of Canada (Mr W. L. Mackenzie King) said that the Canadian Government would, co-oper-ate fully with the United States and Britain in diplomatic action resulting from the occupation of the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, by Free French naval forces commanded by Vice-Admiral Emile Muselier, which was neither anticipated nor approved by Canada. It is officially stated in Vichy that the Government views with satisfaction the United States public condemnation of the Free French seizure of St. Pierre, which was in contradiction of United States assurances of the maintenance of the status quo in French possessions in the New World. .The Free French authorities at St. Pierre disclosed that Vice-Admiral Muselier, after the landing, posted throughout the city proclamations announcing, “I have come by order of General de Gaulle to permit you to participate in a plebiscite to choose between Free France and the Powers which have humiliated and martyred our country.’’ The inhabitants of St. Pierre gave Vice-Admiral Muselier an ovation when he attended a ceremony at the war memorial. Vice-Admiral Muselier appointed M. Alain Savary administrator. The Vichy governor, M. De Bournat, has been placed under protective arrest, pending a decision on his case. The St. Pierre correspondent of the Associated Press of America has disclosed that the four French ships which occupied St. Pierre and Miquelon were part of a group which left an eastern Canadian port on December 22 for manoeuvres at sea and suddenly slipped away on af mysterious mission. The Washington correspondent ■of “New York Herald Tribune” says the Secretary of State (Mr Cordell Hull) will investigate the possibilities of solving the St. Pierre and Miquelon tangle so as to restore the sovereignty of the islands to the Vichy Government and simultaneously ensure Allied control of the islands’ powerful radio station. For some time Britain and the United States have been concerned at the activities of Radio St. Pierre, which has broadcast information valuable to the enemy.

The Prime Minister added that he did not know of Vice-Admiral Muselier’s intention to occupy the islands. He added, however, that no agreement existed with Canada regarding the maintaining of the status quo of occupied islands.

TROOPS FROM CANADA

THOUSANDS REACH BRITAIN PLAN FOR THIS YEAR COMPLETED (8.0. W.) RUGBY, December 26. Thousands of Canadian soldiers and airmen have arrived in Britain. They include reinforcements for the infantry and ordnance service corps, engineers, anti-aircraft, signals, artillery, medical, and other branches of the service. Polish and Netherlands soldiers and airmen were also aboard the troopships. The troops were officially met by Admiral Bromley on behalf of the Government and by representatives of the High Commissioner for Canada (Mr Vincent Massey). Lieutenant-General H. D. G. Crerar, former chief of the Canadian General Staff, arrived in the same convoy as General Officer Commanding the 2nd Canadian Division, and will take over the commanc. of the Canadian Corps during the absence of General A, G. McNaughton on sick leave. “Naturally I am delighted that the Government have seen fit to offer me the command of the 2nd Division and the opportunity of serving overseas in the Canadian Corps under General McNaughton,” said Lieutenant-General Crerar. "I know what a fine division has been built up under General Odium, and I shall not spare myself in maintaining the reputation which the 2nd Division has earned under him. As far as my tenure of office as

Chief of the General Staff is concerned I do not think I can say more than that I have given of my best in the way of advising the Minister towards the establishment in Canada of a sound system of military training and of an ordered, balanced, and speedy development of Army forces as authorised by the Government. "With the arrival in the United Kingdom of the balance of the sth Armoured Division, the overseas programme for 1941 will have been completed. I feel, therefore, that I can now accept the honour of the overseas command with the knowledge that my departure coincides with the completion of a definite phase of Army expansion.” BULGARIA AND BRITAIN DECLARATION OF WAR (8.0. W.) RUGBY, December 27. The “London Gazette” states: “The British Government has been informed by the Government of the United States, who is in charge of British interests in Bulgaria, that a declaration of war by that country on Britain was announced in the Bulgarian Parliament on December 13. The British Government so far has received no official communication to this effect from the Bulgarian Government, but in view of the above information it is hereby notified that a state of war exists between the two countries as from December 13.”