THE WORK AHEAD

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 118, 20 May 1943, Page 6

THE WORK AHEAD

PROSECUTION OF WAR

NO TIME TO BE LOST (Rec. 2.30 p.m.) RUGBY, May 19. Concluding his speech to Congress, Mr. Churchill said: "Heavy work lies ahead, not only in Europe but in the Pacific and Indian spheres. President Roosevelt and I and the combined staffs are gathered here in order that this work shall be well conceived and thrust forward without losing a day." Paying a tribute to Russia, Mr. Churchill said: "Not for one moment must we forget that the main burden of the war on land is still being borne , by the Russians. The 190 German and 28 satellite divisions that the Russians are holding on their front compare with an equivalent of about 15 divisions which we have destroyed in Tunisia in a campaign which cost the Allies about 50,000 casualties. That gives some measure of the Russian effort and the debt we owe her." Mr. Churchill expressed confidence that Hitler's expected third desperate throw against Russia would not succeed, and added that Russia had already inflicted injuries to the Ger- ., man military organisation which would ultimately prove mortal. "We i must do everything in our power that is sensible and practicable to take more of the weight off Russia in 1943;" he added. "I do not intend to be responsible for any suggestion that the war is won or that it will soon be over. That it-will be won by us I am sure, but how and when cannot be foreseen, still less foretold." NO RELAXATION. The Premier emphasised that we could not afford to relax in the slightest, degree, that the enemy was still proud and powerful, that the war was full of mysteries and surprises, and that "a false step in a wrong direction of strategic effort, discord, or lassitude among the Allies might soon give the common enemy power to confront us with new and hideous facts." Finally, Mr. Churchill stressed the grave dangers of a long war. It was m the dragging out of war at enormous expense till the democracies got tired, bored, or split that the main hopes of Germany and Japan now re- .- sided. "We must destroy this hope, as we have destroyed so many otners," he said.—B.O.W.