DEFENCE OF BRITAIN

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 May 1943, Page 5

DEFENCE OF BRITAIN

HOME GUARD’S TASK

MR. CHURCHILL’S BROADCAST

RUGBY, May 14. “Brtiain is the advanced fighting base of the United Nations and is still under constant siege and assault by air and sea.” Mr Churchill said in a broadcast from the United States. “It is in a very large measure the power-house and directing centre of the whole British Commonwealth and Empire. It is a source of vast output of war equipment. It is the; home and cradle of the Navy." From; its ports sail convoys which carry forth’ expeditionary armies, and to them come food supplies by which our tense organised vibrant life is sustained. In this home there burns the light of freedom.” The Prime Minister, who was referring to the third anniversary of the Home Guard, added: “Guard it well, Home Guard.” He traced the development of the Home Guard in the dark days when Britain stood alone. They had been short of arms until our American friends were able to send supplies. The Home Guard had received rifles and ammunition as fast as they arrived, but had hardly dared to fire a practice round, so precious was every cartridge. In those anxious days there had always rose that last consoling thought of unenslavable men. The position to-day was very different. The Home Guard was well armed and was acting on anti-air-craft and coastal defences. Some who saw Britain’s great air strength asked if the danger of invasion had not passed. “Let me assure you,” he said, that until Hitlerism is beaten into unconditional surrender, the danger of invasion will never pass away. The degree of invasion danger-depends entirely upon the strength or weakness of the forces and preparations gathered. to meet it. The larger the Army that must be brought across the sea to attack and subjugate us, the greater the difficulties of operation, and the better targets open to the Navy and British and American Air Forces. Home Guardsmen are a vital part of those forces, as specially adapted to meet the most modern form of overseas attack —descent of parachute troops. The Home Guard might well shave the motto of the Royal Artillery, ‘Ubique,’ for they are everywhere. “If the Nazis dropped down from the skies,” the Prime Minister continued, “they would find they were in the lion’s den. THESE ARE GREAT DAYS.

They are like days in Lord Chatham’s time, of which it was said you had to get up -very early in the morning, not to miss some news of a victory, but victory is no conclusion. Even final victory will only open new and happier fields of valiant endeavour. Victories gained by the way must be the spur. “We are gathered here (in Washington) with the highest professional authorities in all the fighting services of the two great English-speak-ing nations, to plan well ahead of the armies who are moving swiftly forward: It is no good having only one march ahead laid out. March after march must be planned as far as the human eye can see. Design and forethought must be our guides and heralds. Wo owe it to the fighting troops. We owe it to the vast communities we are leading out of the dark places. We owe it to heroic Russia, and long tormented China. We owe it to the captive enslaved nations, who beckon us through their prison bars. “At present, we have strong armies coming across the broad Atlantic. But this is not the end. Ws must prepare for the time which approaches, and will surely come, when the bulk of these armies will advance across the seas into a deadly grapple on the Continent. Just as the Home Guard render the regular forces mobile against the invader, so the Home Guard must now become capable of taking a great deal of the burden of home defence on to themselves, and thus set free the bulk of our trained troops for an assault on the strongholds of the enemy's power.”