INVASION OF BRITAIN

Grey River Argus, 30 July 1940, Page 7

INVASION OF BRITAIN

GERMAN THREAT No Siege Yet LAust. & N.Z Cable Assn.J LONDON, July 28. “Lord Haw-Haw,” on the German radio, to-day, repeats that a great attack against England is only a question of days, and possibly of hours. The coastal attacks are only a miid preliminary. The month ahead may be the most dangerous period, said Mr MacDonald, in urging parents not to bring evacuated children home for the summer holidays. He stressed that the casualties so far had been much smaller in the country than' in towns. The Prime Minister (Mr Churchill) is considering a proposal for a oneminute silence daily throughout Britain, dedicated to the cause for which Britain is fighting. Major Weiiesley Tudorpole, who submitted the proposal to Mr Churchill, was supported by the signatures of 15,000 influential people. He said he hoped that the silence would be observed throughout the world, throughout America, the Dominions and colonies. The total registered for military service is now 4,200,000. Their Majesties and the Princesses to-day inspected sections of the Upper Thames patrol of volunteers. this patrol is formed of private river-craft many of them being manned by the owners. Mr J. L. Garvin, in the “Sunday Observer,” writes: They speak of a siege in Britain. Let us distinguish. We are assailed, but we are not shut up. We are neither invested nor beleagued. Our island is a fortress, witn a difference. Its mantime connections are open as wide as they ever were, and its shipping and sea-power range the oceans. After more than ten. months of war 1 , our mercantile tonnage is larger than ever. Our Navy, in all its annals, has never held more-potent command. The military forces of the Empire can be earned surely from every part, or to any part. Without ceasing, supplies from every Continent and from round the globe come to our island. We aie iigniing tins war near and far, not as a surrounded fortress, but as a historic world Powers which has Britain as its main base. If Britain were besieged in the ordinary sense, being surrounded, her world communications would be cut off, and by tnat fact the whole Empire would be broken. Instead, we retain both by sea and air the widest powers of attack and counter-attack. This Doth Germany and Italy know to their cost. While we hold out at home, we can create new military power, ab-e to take a strong offensive overseas in a wider battie for the Empire. These truths apply directly to the immense theatres of the Mediterranean, North Africa and beyond. These should be our arenas of initiative attack.” The localities in Britain wmen have had air-raids are still a small part of the whole country, but, in the regions most frequently mentioned in the Ministry of Home Security announcements, there are a few places where, during the past six weeks, siren warnings, the drone of engines, gunlire, and occasional bombs have' become very familiar. Experience m these areas of the people’s calmness, patience, irrepressible good humour, and kindness to each other, leaves no doubt how the rest of Britain will behave when its turn comes, or how the nation as a whole will stand up Ito the air menace. Whenever Hit- | jpr’s “travellers”” have called with : samples of the Luftwaffe’s might and menace, the determination to liberate the world from domination by terrorism may be a little more grim than elsewhere, but there is no despondency. The inhabitants are showing great adaptability and ingenuity in overcoming inconvenience and disturbances to normal routine caused by the regularly repeated warnings and raids. To avoid fatigue due to interrupted rest, many people have changed their sleeping hours. Others sleep in their shelters. In many streets of small houses, common shelters have been erected by the authorities and where warnings are of almost nightly occurrence, neighbourliness is joined by something of a picnic spirit. Wives take it in turn to provide hot drinks, the men arrange games and concerts are provided by the young, people, adjacent shelters sometimes exchanging the more successful “artists’, whose prospective “appearance” is duly “billed” the previous day. Such is the resilience of spirit with which the enemy raids on Britain have been met so far.