BLUNT AND BRUTAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1942, Page 5

BLUNT AND BRUTAL

Facts Facing The Allies

CHURCHILL'S REVIEW OF WAR

(Rec. 10 aon.) RUGBY, February 24. A warning that though they had the right to look forward to final victory, blunt, brutal facts, and hard, adverse experiences must be faced first was given by the Prime Minister (Mr. Churchill) when he spoke in the House of Commons today. Although, taking a broad view, the Allied position had been enormously improved in the last few months, said Mr. Churchill, the recent increase in shipping losses was most grave. The Prime Minister referred to the situation in the Far East following the fall of Singapore, and he paid a tribute to the success that had been achieved by Russian arms.

"Our shipping losses since the war iegan have been very heavy," said Mr. Churchill, "and in the last two months there has been a most serious increase in those shipping losses, and our anti-U-boat flotillas and naval light forces of all kinds have been, and are, strained to the utmost limit. But they are bringing in the food by which we live, the materials for munitions with which we are fighting, and the convoys which carry our troops so continually and in such great numbers to the various seats of war.

. "In addition to these actual burdens, there remained the threats from the Levant to the Caspian, covering 'the approaches to India from the west as well as the most important oilfields of Baku and Persia. A few months ago it seemed that this theatre would become dominant in our thought. At the same time a heavy invasion enterprise was mounted by the enemy against Egypt.

"The extraordinary successes of the valiant Russian armies has given us breathing space in both directions. As lately ;as in October and November we were not only fully extended, but, indeed, overstretched, and I cannot imagine what our position would have been if we had yielded to the pressure, which was so vehement at one time, to open up a new front in France or the Low Countries.

, , "Upon this situation there suddenly came the impact of Japan. This mighty impact fel| upon our wide and prosperous, but rightly defended, : possessions and establishments in the Far East, which have rightly been kept within the lowest level on account of the imperative requirements of the European and African theatres. Where would we have been if we had spread our limited anti-aircraft guns throughout the immense, innumerable regions and strong and vulnerable points of the Far East, instead of using them to preserve the vital life of our ports and factories here, and our fortresses, which were under continuous attack, and our operations with field armies in the Middle East?" PLAIN, BRUTAL. FACTS. "The House must face, and the nation must face, plain, brutal facts.^ If having entered the war yourself * illprepared, you are struggling for life, with two well-armed countries, one of them possessing the most powerful military machine in the world, and then, at the moment when you are in full grapple, a third, with far greater military forces than you possess, suddenly springs upon your comparatively undefended back, obviously your task is heavy, your immediate experiences disagreeable, and your iate hard. "From the moment Japan attacked, we set in motion to the Far East uaval forces, aircraft, troops, and equipment on a scale only limited by the available shipping. All these forces and supplies were diverted or came from a theatre which already needed them, and both our margin of safety and our advance of operations have been notably, but not, I trust, decisively, affected. "Before I left for the United States early in December most of the principal orders had been given, and we managed to reinforce Singapore by over 40,000 men, together with large quantities of anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery, all of which were withdrawn from other points where they were sorely needed or actively engaged. r "This was especially true in regard to modern aircraft. Unfortunately, before enough of these could arrive in Malaya—there was no delay in giving the orders and many daring matters were conducted by commanders—the airfields in Singapore Island were already under the fire- of Japanese artillery from Joliore. "We were not, therefore, able to repeat the air fighting from an island base as has been so remarkable a feature of the prolonged defence of Malta, now under increasingly severe attacks. SPEEDY REINFORCEMENT. "Nevertheless, the speedy reinforcement of Singapore by no less than nine convoys would have been judged a splendid achievement if the resulting defence had been crowned with success." , Mr. Churchill said that he had no ! further news about Singapore, but continued: "Singapore was a naval base rather than a fortress. It depended on the command of the seas, which again depends on command of the air. j Its permanent fortifications and bat- j teries were constructed from a naval point of view. The various defence j lines which had been constructed in Johore were not successfully held. The works constructed on the island itself to defend the gorge were not on a suf- j ficiently large scale. "I would certainly not attempt at this stage to pass judgment on our troops, 73,000 of whom are stated by the enemy to be prisoners, or on their commanders. "If I were to dilate on our hopes they. might soon be falsified, and I might be mocked by those who prove themselves wise by our failures. If, on the other hand, I painted the picture in its darkest view, very great despondency might be spread among our ardent and growing forces, and the enemy might be encouraged. "I would deprecate a long series of speeches in the House censuring or explaining in detail the many tragedies which are growing. I am not sure we could afford to indulge ourselves too freely, having regard to the perils that beset us and /the ears that listen to hs. POSITION IMPROVED. "If we look forward across a considerable period of immediate punishment through which we must make

our way in consequence of the sudden onslaught of Japan, if we look forward to the broad and major aspect of the war we can see very clearly that our position has been enormously improved, not only in the last two years, but in the last few months. This improvement is due to the wonderful strength and power of Russia and the accession of the United ..States with its measureless resources to the common cause.

"Our position has, in fact, improved beyond any measure that the most sanguine would have dared to predict. WHOLE ARMY LOST.

"We have more urgent work to do. We have to face the situation that results from this great loss of a base, troops, and equipment—a whole army. There is little more I can say usefully at this juncture on the progress of the war, and certainly it would be very foolish to try to prophesy the immediate future.

"It is estimated that there are still 26 Japanese divisions in the ABBA area and a number of these divisions can be moved and.supplied at far less expense than European or United States troops.

"We have not so many divisions in the ABDA area. The enemy also has, for the time being, a waning command of the sea. He has command of the air, which makes it costly and difficult