WAR REVIEW

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 114, 16 May 1941, Page 6

WAR REVIEW

THE TRUE PERSPECTIVE

NATION'S FULL ENERGIES

NEEDED

DUTIES FOR ALL

RUGBY, May 14,

The Secretary of State for India (Mr. Amery), speaking at Coventry, said that to judge the actual war situation it was necessary to see it in true perspective. He continued: "A year ago the German army and air force were sweeping irresistibly, across Holland and Belgium. Within a few weeks the splendid army of France, 4he mainstay of European freedom on land, was shattered like a pane of glass into helpless fragments, and France herself, dazed and bewildered, allowed herself to be handed over bound and gagged to a merciless conqueror. "Here we had a handful of trained soldiers, salvaged miraculously at the sacrifice of all their, equipment, and a larger force of men, both untrained and unequipped for modern war. Nothing was wanted to assure for Hitler that triumphant entry into London whose date he had already fixed but a few days' command of the .air over the Channel and southern England, and for that he looked confidently to his overwhelming air force. "While the heart of the Empire was thus in immediate and deadly peril, General Wavell, at its main gateway in the Middle East, was facing Italian forces throe or four times stronger than his own on 'each side of him. "What happened? The first air battle of Britain last autumn, the world's first great air battle, and perhaps its most decisive one, put an end to all Hitler's dreams of walking into and over our unarmed England. The. second air and submarine battle, covering both Britain and its Atlantic approaches, is in progress. It calls for all our energy and skill to meet it. We shall see it through, and however long it continues, Hitler will be no nearer the goal of his ambition here than he was when he gave up the first battle of Bx-itain six months ago. "In the Mediterranean, General Wavell's brilliant campaigns not only annihilated both Italian armies that had been so laboriously assembled for his destruction, but actually enabled him to do what no one could have dreamt of last autumn, dispatch a substantial force to support the Greeks in their heroic and most amazing stand against overwhelming forces. ENEMY PLANS POSSIBLY THROWN OUT. "The strain thrown upon Germany in the wholly unexpected campaign in the Balkans may well have thrown out of gear the whole of Hitler's plans for a victorious march across Turkey. Its effect upon Germany's communications and sources of supply may well, indeed, only be felt fully in the course of the coming months. Together with our unconquerable Greek allies, we hold Crete, with its immensely important strategical position. What is far more important than these purely militaty gains is the proof'we have given to the world that we know how to stand by our friends.", ; :'*.■•■ ■ Emphasising that this was a total war. not only in the sense'that all shared its. dangers, but that all must be in it to the last of energy, Mr. Amery added: "It is a matter, in which every individual has his own personal duty to. fulfil. It is also a matter in which it is for all who are naturally or officially looked to for leadership to give a clear lead, whether they be employers or trade union leaders, members of Parliament, or Ministers of the Crown. No existing vested interests or habits or usages must be allowed to stand in the way of the fullest utilisation of all the energies of the nation. All tracks must be cleared for the way of the express unlimited."—B.O.W.