BRITISH MORALE

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 August 1941, Page 6

BRITISH MORALE

“IF ANYTHING, TOO GOOD.”

NEW YORK, August 10. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Mr. A. Duff Cooper), who is on his way to the Far East, on a special mission, arrived in New York by Clipper. . He said that the morale of the British people was, if anything, too good. There was a tendency to think that Britain had already won the war. Certainly the prospects were infinitely better, but final victory was still far distant. The Battle of the Atlantic had gone strongly in Britain’s favour. Nevertheless, the submarine menace was still present. • The invasion threat had been enormously reduced because Britain was now fully prepared and every’inch of shore was now guarded by a splendid army, fully equipped. The great lull in bombing was attributed to various factors, one being that Germany had lost the cream of her air force. British war production had scarcely been interrupted. American equipment was arriving in an ever-increasing flow.

Questioned regarding his new post in Singapore, Mr. Duff Cooper said the British Government thought there was likely to be a great development in this area in the near future and that it should be possible to adopt a centralised system of diplomatic communications and control.

Mr. Duff Cooper will visit Washington shortly and will proceed by clipper to Singapore a little later.