NOW CLOSING

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 25, 30 January 1943, Page 7

NOW CLOSING

RING ROUND EUROPE

ALLIES ABOUT TO

STRIKE

(Rec. 1Q.40 a.m.) RUGBY, Jan. 29. "The steel ring round Hitler's Europe is closing," said the Minister of Production, Captain Lyttelton, speaking in Birmingham. He stressed the importance of the strategical initiative which the Allies have regained. The steel ring round Hitler had been ■formed in three major areas—by the Russian armies in the east, the forces of Generals Alexander and Eisenhower in the Middle East, and finally the war-1 ships of the Royal Navy from Gibraltar to Murmansk. The lock of the ring was Bizerta; that lock remained to be shut.- "When it is, the steel ring will be closed," said the Minister. "War, he said, meant something intensely- dynamic. It meant a daily struggle to.get ahead of the enemy in weapons. Nobody was ignorant of the fact that the U-boat menace was one of the lew remaining means by which the enemy could prolong the war, and we must give new urgency 'not only to the production of merchantmen but also the escort vessels and aircraft Which protect them over the hazardous seas, and also to the, innumerable new scientific devices, particularly in the' radio 'field. The production changes, however, did not mean a general post in the munition industries. Judged in relation to total labour forces, the changes were comparatively small. In any event, men and women would not be 'moved from their homes without good reason. ."The greatest single reason for the changes," he said, "is that we are now about to strike and not to defend. In 1943 we hope we shall count our successes in terms of impact on the enemy and not, as in .1941, of merely being able to maintain ourselves."— 8.0. W. •