VICTORY OF THE FIRST ORDER

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 143, 13 December 1940, Page 7

VICTORY OF THE FIRST ORDER

SPEECH BY PREMIER PLEDGE TO EGYPT MADE GOOD LONDON, December 12. Mr. Churchill spoke in Parliament today on what he described as "this victory of the first order." He was speaking before the latest reports were known, but he said: "The pursuit to the westward continues with the greatest vigour, with the Air Force bombing and the Navy shelling the chief road open to the retreating enemy." It had been obvious, he continued, that the British column which cut through to the coast between Sidi Barrani and Bukbuk had cut the principal road by which the main body of the Italian army could retreat. The question then had been whether the encircling of the positions which General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson's forces had captured after their brilliantly executed desert march could be effectively maintained and whether the net could be forced in at all points to the sea shore. The strong position of Sidi Barrani and the various fortified posts in the neighbourhood had appeared to be a considerable obstacle, but Sidi Barrani had been captured and the coastal region was in the hands of British and Imperial troops. Mr. Churchill added that the encircling movement would be found to have destroyed or captured the best part of three Italian divisions, including numerous Black Shirt formations. To them must be added prisoners which were being taken in the present drive to the west. The Prime Minister paid a tribute to General Sir Archibald Wavell, Com-mander-in-Chief in the Middle East; to General Sir Henry Maitland Wilson, who is in command of the land force taking part in the operations; to the staff officers who < had planned the operations; and to the troops who had performed the remarkable feats of endurance and daring which had accompanied it. He again said it was too soon to measure the scale of the operations, •but it was clear that -the British forces had won a victory which "was of the first order ik the African theatre of war. "The whole episode," he said, "must be judged upon the background that only three or four months ago our anxieties for the defence of Egypt were acute. These anxieties," he concluded, amid cheers, "are now removed, and the British pledge thai) Egypt would be effectively defended against all comers has been in every way made good."