PORTSMOUTH ATTACKED

Evening Star, Issue 23864, 19 April 1941, Page 9

PORTSMOUTH ATTACKED

NAZIS’ LATEST NIGHT RAID NUMBER OF FIRES STARTED DAMAGE AND CASUALTIES LIGHT LONDON, April 18. _ The main attack by the German air force was made against Portsmouth last night. A procession of planes visited the town and started a number of fires, but.it is believed that neither the damage nor the casualties were heavy. THE ASSAULT ON LONDON BETWEEN 450 AND 500 PLANES PARTICIPATE LONDON, April 18. The ‘ Daily Telegraph ’ says that between 450 and 500 German planes participated in Wednesday night’s raid on London. This is at least twice as many as there were in any previous raid. Four members of Lord Stamp’s domestic staff were also killed. All were in a concrete shelter,, which was directly hit by a . high explosive. No-' thing remained of the house but a heap of rubble and broken woodwork. Not a brick was left standing, and there was not even a stick of recognisable furniture in the wreckage. THREE ENEMY BOMBERS DESTROYED {British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. April 18. (Received April 19, at 12.5 p.m.) It ( is now known that three enemy bombers were destroyed last night, two by anti-aircraft fire in the attack on Portsmouth. RAIDS IN OTHER PARTS (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 18. (Received April 19, at 10.20 a.m.) Southern, Eastern, and North-eastern England were also raided last night, but the casualties were few, and there was no substantial damage. Two raiders are known to have been destroyed during the night. AIR FORCE CRASH TWO DEATHS IN AUSTRALIA PILOT A BROTHER OF GUY HEKZIES BRISBANE, April 19. (Received April 19, at 10.10 a.m.) When an Air Force aeropiane_crashed at Ravenswood yesterday the pilot, lau Menzies, aged 27, and a passenger. Kenneth Scott, 24. were killed. Menzies was a brother of the late Mr Guy Mcnzie*. who flew the Tasman in extraordinary circumstances some years ago. DUTCH INDUSTRIES GERMANY'S FIRM GRIP (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. April 17. An instance of the inexorable grip of the German tentacles on the industries of the occupied countries is given in a recent issue of the newspaper ‘ De Telegraaf,’ of Amsterdam. The Finance Commissar (M. Fischboek), according to the newspaper, stated at a recent meeting of Dutch and German industrialists, over which he presided, and which discussed closer co-operation between the two industries, tliat Dutch industry was fortunate in these days of war. It was clear that German industries would be compelled to make sacrifices to render possible the fulfilment of present needs, and it would certainly not be easv for them to sacrifice orders and relinquish the raw materials reserved for Dutch industries. It was therefore necessarv for Dutch concerns to work according to the conditions governing the German concerns. “ Every manufacturer must ask himself,” he said, “ what product is the most important for the conduct of the war. This does not mean that war materials alone are important, _ but everything necessary to the national economy during wartime.”

GERMANY CANNOT WIN CAPTAIN HARGESSOH’S REASONS (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, April 18. (Received April 19, at 9.50 a.m.) Captain Margesson. (Secretary for War), broadcasting to Latin America, said Latin Americans who had seen the battered hulk of the Graf Spee knew that Germany could not win on the sea. “ You have read how the R.A.F., much weaker relatively then than now, met and broke the German Air Force last autumn," .he said, “ And you will know that Germany cannot win in the air. Can Germany win on the land? I tell you she cannpt. With her enormous army, magnificently equipped, she will have successes against small nations, but until she has beaten Britain those victories cannot be decisive The British Nation i* united in its determination to resist. Every one of you can understand that decision. The United States has become the arsenal for free men, which means that sooner or later Germany must lose ” Captain Margesson concluded by saving that the first consequence of a British victory must be a tremendous relief from the evil of vvorld menace, but there must be material as well as moral consequences. “Of one thing I am sure, and it is your affair as much as ours, that the world cannot ever again afford to allow widespread poverty among primary' producers. After the war there must he an end to poverty in the midst of plenty,’the *hid. '