STILL THE KEY TO VICTORY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 287, 1 September 1941, Page 7

STILL THE KEY TO VICTORY

Tide Of Production FAR SHORT OF OUR

NEEDS

Warning By Mr. Eden

(British Official JV 1 ” 1633 -) (Received August 31, 7.30 p.m.)

RUGBY, August 30. ~ Speaking in Coventry today the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Eden, dealt with the question of production, which he declared was still the key to victory. The output of war material by the Allied and associated Powers, including the United States contribution, still fell far short of our needs, he said. Those needs would grow as the tide of war swept wider until it engulfed the world.

Referring to Russia, .Mr. Eden said the Soviet forces were fighting with magnificent courage and necessarily using up huge quantities of munitions. We now had a greater call to meet. We had to help supply Russia’s needs as well as our own. It was quantity of machines which had won all the battles of this war. ' What Shortage Means. “To be short of materials in war is the most costly method of waging war not only in life but also in material,” he said. “Had we and our French and Belgian Allies possessed in France last summer the armoured units and the air support the German armies enjoyed Germany might today be fighting a land war on two fronts. Our losses of equipment in France left us here last year with the cupboard almost empty.- You worked unsparingly to fill it. And then, out of our still perilously scant resources, we sent to General Sir Archibald Wavell in the autumn the tanks, guns and aeroplanes of which he and his commanders and men made such brilliant use last win'ter.” ■ We needed war materials in.all parts of the world, declared Mr. Eden. Only this week it had been necessary _ to take action against German machinations in a new area —Iran. Mr. Eden referred to the agreements recently concluded between Poland and Russia, which restored the relations between the two countries and provided for the formation of a Polish army on Russian soil, and between Russia _and_ Turkey guaranteeing the territorial integrity of the latter in the event of her being attacked. Soviet Acts Welcomed. “These two acts by the Soviet Government,” he said, “were warmly welcomed by us because both Poland and Turkey stand in special relationship to ourselves. We have treaties of mutual assistance with both.” The Roosevelt-Churchill declaration, continued M r . Eden, was more than another nail in Nazism’s coffin. It was a declaration that we, too, had our plans for peace as well as a strategy for war. Europe, including Germany, knows now the choice before it Hitler’s new order or ours. Referring to his recent statement that after the war Germany must be placed in a condition in which it would be impossible for her again to rearm and resume the struggle for world domination, and on the other hand in conditions which would prevent her economic collapse, Mr. Eden said: “Today I would go a step further. These two fundamental principles must govern not only our relations with Germany after the war but all our international relations. This is the plain meaning of the RooseveltChurchill declaration. No nation must ever be in a position to wage aggressive war against her neighbours. Economic Relations.

“Secondly, economic relations must be so regulated that no nation can in future be starved out of its proper economic position by autocratic methods of trade arbitrarily imposed. One fallacy we have learned since 1918 is that of the idea then possessed by many tliat when. the war was over they could sit back and all would be well. We know better now. We know we must be as alert and watchful to win the peace as we need to be vigorous and persistent to win the war.”

PRODUCTION DRIVE

Speed Up Urged On All Sides (British Official Wireless.)

(Received August 31, 8.10 p.m.)

RUGBY, August 30,

The need for a still further increase in production in Britain is being urged on all sides. In a speech at Sheffield the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr. Alexander, said the war was approaching the decisive stage and the people of Britain must “strip to the waist.” It is felt here that, reliance on Russia’s magnificent resistance and on increasing supplies from the United States might seem to some specious reasons for.arguing that Britain, having borne the noonday heat of the struggle, can now go steadily along while these factors bring inevitable final victory. “The Times” takes the opening ot the annual meeting of the Trades Union Congress at Edinburgh on Monday as the text on which to discuss problems of production as they affect trade unionists. While arguing that all the interests of both employers and workers would be worthless if the war were lost, it says:— “Expansion of the productive effort to the full is desperately needed, and in order that there may be full production there must be good faith and confident trust in better days after the war. Skilled men must have their skilled work back again. Unemployed men must have something better than sustenance and the dole. Industry, too, must have prospects of security. Great Concealed Resources.

“The right pledges given now with unqualified authority, joint pledges of all the parties in the State, would set free great concealed resources. Immense efforts surpassing all that has yet been done are required of this country. “Russia’s resistance and the stubborn heroism of her forces against the dire shock of the German war machine is of incalculable value. The maintenance of Russian resistance during the winter and into next year will be a still more magnificent achievement. But in any event, the war must again turn west and nothing but the strength of our own forces in the air, on the sea and on the land and the products of our own factories, augmented by America’s unstinted supplies, will bring us through.”