RESOLUTION FIRM

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20259, 29 May 1940, Page 8

RESOLUTION FIRM

FREEDOM FIGHT STANDARD STILL HIGH DEFENCE BY ALLIES ULTIMATE VICTORY DUFF COOPER’S VIEW (Klee T<4. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 1.30 p.m. RUGBY. May 28. The Minister of Information, Mr. A. Duff Cooper, in his broadcast address to-day, recalled how a week ago he had spoken of the danger in which the British Expeditionary Force stood and how he had contended that even if the Allies lost this battle they would not have lost the war. He recalled those words to-night when the danger of the British Expeditionary Force was great indeed and he would recall also other dark days in the last war. They could ali remember the retreat from Mo ns when, day after clay, the weary British forces staggered down the roads of Fiance with the German army pressing on their heels. They could all remember in the following yehr how the Germans first used poison gas and the Allied soldiers had no defence against it. and it seemed that the enemy would carry all before him They could remember the submarine campaign of 1917 when the enemy were sinking one out of every four ships that sailed from or to Britain. Prelude to Victory They could remember, too, the last great offensive of March 1918, which for many days drove all before it. “On each of those occasions it seemed to many of the faint-heartea that the war was lost, but it never was—and all these events.which were disastrous at the tune proved but. a prelude to victory,’ 1 said the Minister. After warning the public against Nazi propaganda, which still sought to divide the British and French, Mr. Duff Cooper turned to the military position. “The enemy has succeeded in forcing his way through the lines of the Allies and has reached the sea, but the armies of the Allies have not been defeated and whenever we have met the enemy’ whether on land, or sea, or in the air, we have proved our superiority,” he continued. “It will be necessary to do our utmost to withdraw our army from the positions now occupied, but it will not be a defeated army we shall withdraw. Confidence Unshaken “It will be an army whose courage is still high and whose confidence is still unshaken and in which every officer and man is still burning with the desire to meet the enemy in combat. “The army knows how we have driven the German ships from the sea and how the German air force, repeatedly although in superior numbers has turned tail before us in the air and .the army is. hungry for the opportunity of meeting the German soldiers on the field. That opportunity will come in due course.” The Minister concluded: “The standard of liberty is still flying high and under it are massed the armies of the British commonwealth and the French Republic. Towards the same standard are flocking the remnants of the fighting forces of those unhappy countries upon whom has descended the horror of German tyranny. Czechs and Poles. Norwegians and Dutch — yes and the Belgians ‘ too —are still desperately desirous of fighting for the freedom that their countries have lost. “And on that flag of liberty are fixed the anxious eyes of all free men, all over the world. They know' it is their emblem as much as it is ours and they tremble to think that it could ever be pulled down. They need not tremble. Their cause is safe. We are not vainglorious and will not boast, but our hearts are calm and our resolution firm.” It is announced that the Minister of Information is to attend meetings of the War Cabinet in order that he may be informed of high decisions.