CHURCHILL'S PROMISE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 118, 20 May 1943, Page 5

CHURCHILL'S PROMISE

Heavy War East and West

(Kec. 11 a.m.) RUGBY, May 19. A promise of British co-operation in " the unflinching1 and relentless waging of the war against Japan," a promise of intensified air assault against Axis industry, a revelation of recent record sinkings of U-boats, a warm tribute to the Russian armies which are holding 190 German and 28 satellite divisions, and a prediction that Hitler would make a third desperate throw against Russia—these were notable points in a 50-minute speech which Mr. Churchill delivered this afternoon to both Houses of the United States Congress. The speecji was broadcast from 'Washington and was heard with great clarity by listeners in Britain.

mountains, and jungles in various quarters of the globe. "Our war plans," he said, "must therefore be inspired, pervaded, and even dominated . by the supreme object of coming to grips with the enemy in favourable or tolerable conditions on the largest possible scale at the earliest possible moment, and engaging that enemy wherever it is profitable, and I might say wherever it is possible, to do so. Thus we shall make our enemies in Europe and Asia burn and consume their .strength on land and sea and in the air with the maximum rapidity." TALKS WITH OTHER LEADERS. Commenting on Mr. Roosevelt's dual office of President and Commander-in-Chief —following the precedent which had been successful in the case of George Washington—Mr. Churchill caused amusement when he said: "I, as the majority leader in the House of Commons, and in one branch of the Legislature, have been drawn from time to time, not perhaps wholly against my will, into the sphere of military affairs." In modern war it was necessary that technical and professional authorities should be sustained and policy directed by the heads of Governments, who had the knowledge to enable them to bring not only military but economic forces to work. "These are the reasons that compelled the President to make the long journey to Casablanca and the reasons that bring me here," he proceeded. "We earnestly hope that at no distant date we may have an opportunity to meet Marshal, Stalin and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. How or when is not a matter on which I am able to shed any clear ray of light at present. In the meantime we shall

The Prime Minister was introduced jj by the Speaker, Mr. Sara Rayburn, and received a tremendous ovation. tl c "The fact that you have invited me j to come to Congress a second time now « that we have settled down to the job, c and that you should welcome me in t] so generous a fashion is certainly a a high mark in my life, and also shows jj that our partnership has not done so a badly," said Mr. Churchill. Recalling a his previous visit just after the Japan- n ese attack on Pearl Harbour, Mr. Churchill spoke of "the sense of relief and comfort" he then felt at the com- P radeship cemented in common peril, and added: "The experiences of a long life and the promptings of my blood c wrought in me the conviction that a there is nothing more important for 0 the future of the world than the fra- j. ternal association of our two peoples t in righteous work both in war and in a peace." So it was, said Mr. Churchill, that he was able to prepare himself in confident and steadfast spirit to bear the terrible blows which evidently were about to fall—which were bound to fall—on British interests in the Far East. He recalled these blows singly, and described the operations in the Malay Peninsula and at Singapore as the greatest, or at any rate the largest, military disaster in British history. Then he said,' amid loud applause: "All this has to be retrieved. All this and much else has to be repaid." This led,'him to his forthright declaration regarding Japan. "Let no one suggest that we British have not at least as great an interest as the United States in the unflinching and relentless waging of war against Japan—(loud cheers) —and in aiding Australia and New Zealand to defend themselves against Japanese invasion." This, he said, seemed far more threatening at the time of Singapore than it did now, "I am here to tell you that we will wage that war side by side with you in accordance with the best strategic employment of our forces while there is breath in our bodies and while blood flows through our veins," he said. AID TO CHINA. In this connection Mr. Churchill alluded to the presence with him of commanders from Asia. A notable part in the war against Japan, he said, must be played by the large armies and air and naval forces now marshalled by Britain on the eastern frontiers of India. In this quarter there lay one of the means of bringing aid to hard-pressed and long-tormented China. He declared: "I regard the bringing of immediate effective aid to China as one of the most urgent of our common tasks." Loud laughter greeted him when he said dryly: "It may not have escaped your attention that I have brought to this country Field-Marshal Wavell and the other two commanders-in-chief from India, and they have not travelled all this way simply, to concern themselVesabout1 Improving" the Health and happiness of the Mikado of Japan." Mr. Churchill continued: "You may be sure that if all that were necessary was for an order to be given to the great armies standing ready in India to march towards the rising sun and open the Burma Road, that order would be given this afternoon. The matter is, however, more complicated, and all movements and infiltrations of troops into the mountains and jungles of north-east India are strictly governed by the science of logistics. But I repudiate the slightest suspicion that we would hold anything back ; that could be usefully employed or that I and the Government I represent are not resolved to employ every man, gun, and aeroplane that can be used in this business." He recalled that in the January conference With Mr. Roosevelt the United States had undertaken the main responsibility of prosecuting the war against Japan and that Britain took the main burden on the Atlantic. Britain, he said, had willingly done her full share of sea work in the dangerous waters of the Mediterranean and in the Arctic convoys to Russia, and had sustained since the alliance began more than double the losses of merchant tonnage that had fallen upon the United States. On the other hand, the prodigious output of new ships from the United States had for the six months past overtaken and now far surpassed the /losses of both Allies. RECORD U-BOAT KILLINGS. Mr. Churchill mentioned that our killings of U-boats had for this year greatly exceeded all previous experience, and that the last three months, and particularly the last three weeks, had yielded record results. This was to some extent due to the larger number of U-boats, but also to the vast improvement in the severity and power of the measures against them and the new devices which were continually employed. Dealing with the air offensive, Mr. Churchill said that opinion was divided as to whether the use of air power could itself bring about collapse in Germany and Italy. The experiment was well worth trying so long as other measures were not excluded. The Prime Minister spoke of the , "unparalleled devastation" to which the German war industry, particularly in the Ruhr, was being reduced, and here he revealed that 19 Lancasters had taken part in the destruction oi the great dams, with the loss of eight machines. This success would play a very far-reaching part in reducing the German munitions output. It was the settled policy of the Allied staffs and of the war-making authorities to make it impossible for Germany to carry on any form of war industry on a large or concentrated scale, either in Germany, Italy, or the enemy-occupied countries. "Wherever centres exist, or are developed, they will be destroyed and the munitions and populations dispersed," he said. Laughter greeted the statement: "If they don't like what's coming to them, let them disperse beforehand, on their own." The process would continue ceaselessly, with ever-increasing weight and intensity, until the German and Italian peoples had abandoned or destroyed the monstrous tyrannies which they had incubated and reared in their midst. Meanwhile, the air offensive was forcing Germany to withdraw an ever-larger proportion of its warmaking capacity from the fighting fronts in order to provide protection against air attack. Phenomenal resources had already been assigned to this purely defensive function. AIR BLOWS AT JAPAN. Returning to the subject of Japan, Mr. Churchill said: "It is all agreed between us that we should, at the earliest moment, bring our joint air power to bear upon the military targets in the homeland of Japan. It is the duty of those charged with the direction of the war to overcome, at the earliest moment, the military, geographical, and political difficulties and begin the process, as necessary as desirable, of laying the cities and other military centres of Japan in ashes— for in asiies they must surely lie before peace comes back to the world." Speaking more generally, said Mr. CKUrchill, the prime problem was not so much the creation of armies or -a vast output of munitions and aircraft, but the application of those forces to the enemy in the teeth of the U-boat resistance or on land through swamps,