STEADY FLOW TO BRITAIN

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 174, 20 April 1942, Page 5

STEADY FLOW TO BRITAIN

Tasks For American Forces

MARSHALL’S TRIP

(British Official. Wireless.) (Received April 19, 9.10 p.m.) RUGBY, April 18. A steady flow of American troops into the United Kingdom, with American air units operating from all over England, was forecast by the United States Chief of Staff, General Marshall, in a talk to war correspondents today after reviewing the American troops 'in Northern Ireland. He said he expected that American troops would take part in commando raids which would be carried out from the United Kingdom. "We have a whole army corps trained for amphibious warfare,” he said. “We don’t call them commandos but ‘task troops’.”

General Marshall, who was accompanied by the American lease-lend director, Mr. Harry Hopkins, the President’s personal representative, Mr. A,veril Harriman, and the commander-in-chief of the British troops in Northern Ireland, General Franklin, expressed his satisfaction at the results of his visit to England. “All our talks,” lie said, “have been highly successful. I have had several conferences with the chiefs of staff both night and day, and very important results and agreements have been reached. There will be a steady flow of troops into the United Kingdom.” General Marshall remarked that America had troops in Iceland, Greenland, the Aleutian Islands, Australia, and the Philippines, where a standard had been set up, and that standard was one for everyone to live up to. Mr. Hopkins, addressing American officers, said: “We can only win by fighting like the devil, but it is going to be a tough business. I have a deep-seated belief that in the final analysis it is combat only that is going to count.” He added: “We are going to build a tremendous number of ships. We shall have 8,000,000 tons this year, and I believe we will build 15,000,000 tons next year.” In ’Washington yesterday the Secretary of War, Mr. Stimson, briefly reviewed American military progress since the Pearl Harbour attack on December 7, and said: “Things are beginning to move in the right direction. I am more than ever convinced that we are going to get the offensive and to do so at the earliest practicable moment.” J However, he stressed the fact that preparations for offensive world-wide conflict was a long and difficult process. “I think I can assure you now that, so far as the army is concerned, we are getting pretty hear the stage of being ready for an offensive, however difficult it may be,” he said.

TO TAKE INITIATIVE

Britain’s Gathering Strength (British Official Wireless.) (Received April 19, 7 p.m.) RUGBY, April 18. The keen desire of the British forces to get to grips with the enemy was emphasized by Mr. Arthur Henderson, joint Under-Secretary for War, in a speech today. “They have had to be patient for a long time,” he said. “Enormous leeway has had to be made up under the stress of conditions that have taxed all our spiritual, material and production resources. At home and elsewhere the workers in all the essential industries and Services have played a magnificent part in producing the growing quantities of weapons of victory.”

Air. Henderson echoed the recent words of other members of the Governmetn in saying that the time was coming when Britain would turn more and more 'to the offensive, a situation which wars made possible largely because of the mounting production of all types of war munitions in the factories of the United Nations. But he added the warning: "We must choose the right time for the Allied offensive and strike the hardest blows where they will be felt most.” Referring to Hitler's prophesied spring offensive against Russia, he said: “Our Russian ally will be fortified by tlie knowledge that all of the United Nations will do everything within their power to ensure tlie failure of that offensive.”