NAVAL SUPREMACY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20487, 22 February 1941, Page 5

NAVAL SUPREMACY

KEY TO STRATEGY BRITAIN NOW UNITED WEST FRONT MYTH OVER MR. CHURCHILL’S NEW LINE SEA AND AIR CONTROL (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 9 a.m. RUGBY, Feb. 21. A penetrating analysis of the realisation by the Prime Minister, Mr. Winston Churchill, of the importance of naval supremacy in the present phase of the war, has been made by a neutral commentator giving a broadcast from Boston, U.S.A. The commentator said: “The very completehess of the German victories in the first half of last year enabled Mr. Churchill to discard the line of strategy which Britain followed during most of the campaign between 1914-18 and which its leaders clung to tenaciously in this war until Mr. Churchill took over the Government. Liquidation at Dunkirk “The German occupation of France took away one of the most pernicious sources of defeat in the Western Front theory. What Mr. Churchill and Mr. Lloyd George before him had been struggling to get rid of for nearly a quarter of a century was effectively liquidated at Dunkirk. “With the disappearance of the Western Front myth, Britain becomes united in strategic outlook and, although the loss of France and the Low Countries was a heavy price to pay, the new unity is an immense asset and is likely to take effect in the future. Mr. Churchill may have* only a fraction of the men who were assembled on the Allied front in 1916-17, but everything he has is effective. He may have lost most of the Continent, but the Continent is a seething mass of discontent and incipient rebellion so the German occupation is only partially effective. Moreover, if he does not control the land, he controls the sea and air to cover the enemy’s weak points with asbolute sureness. The navy is the key to Britain's policy to-day.”