But Confident

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 100, 29 April 1941, Page 8

But Confident

American safety, which depend upon the destruction of Hitler and his foul gang and their even fouler doctrines. But in. the long run, believe me, for I know, the action of the United States | will be dictated not by a methodical j calculation of profit and loss, but by i moral sentiments and the growing flush of resolve which lifts the wills of men and nations and springs from the spiritual foundations of human life itself.

“We for our part are, of course, bound to the Greek appeal to the utmost limits of our strength. We put the case to the Dominions of Australia and New Zealand, and their Governments, without in any way ignoring the hazards, told us they felt the same as we did. So an important part of the mobile portions of the Army of the Nile was sent to Greece in fulfilment of our pledge.

“It happened that the divisions available and best suited to this task were from New Zealand and Australia, and only half the troops who took part in the dangerous expedition came from the Mother Country.

“I see that German propaganda is trying to make bad blood between us and Australia by making out that we used them to do what we would not have asked of the British Army. I shall leave it to Australia to deal with that taunt.

“Let us see what happened. We knew that the forces we could send to Greece would not by themselves alone be sufficient to stem the German tide of invasion, but there was a very real hope that the neighbours of Greece would, by our intervention, be drawn to stand in line together with her while time remained. How nearly that came off will be known some day.

“The tragedy of Yugoslavia has been that this brave people had a Government which hoped to purchase an ignoble immunity by submission to the Nazi will. Thus, when at last the people of Yugoslavia found out where they were being taken and rose in one spontaneous surge of revolt, they saved their souls and the future of their country, but it was already too late to save its territory. They had not time to mobilise their armies, but were struck down by the ruthless and highlymechanised German armies before they could even bring their armies into the field.

“Great disasters have occurred In the Balkans. Yugoslavia has been beaten down. Only in the mountains can she continue her resistance. The Greeks have been overwhelmed. Their victorious Albanian army has been cut off and forced to surrender, and it has been left to the Anzacs and their British comrades to fight their way back to the sea, leaving their mark on all who hindered them.

“I turn aside to indulge for a moment in a little light relief. I dare say you have read in the newspapers that, by a special proclamation, the Italian dictator congratulated the Italian army in Albania on the glorious laurels they had gained by their victory over the Greeks. Here, surely, is a world’s record in the domain of the ridiculous and contemptible. The whipped jackal Mussolini, who to save his own skin made all Italy a vassal State to Hitler, comes frisking up at the side of the German tiger with the yelps not only of the puppet—that could be understood —but even of triumph.

“While these grievous events were taking place in the Balkan Peninsula and Greece, our forces in Libya sustained a vexatious and damaging defeat. The Germans advanced sooner and in greater numbers than we or our generals expected. The bulk of our armoured troops which played such a decisive part in beating the Italians had to be refitted, and a single armoured brigade which had been judged sufficient to hold the frontier until about the middle of May was worsted and its vehicles were largely destroyed by a somewhat stronger German force. “Our divisions had to fall back upon the very large Imperial armies that have been assembled and can be nourished and maintained in the fertile Delta of the Nile. The fortress ot Tobruk, which flanks any German advance on Egypt, we hold strongly There we have repulsed many attacks, causing the enemy immense losses and taking many prisoners. That is how the matter stands in Libya and on the Egyptian front.

“We must now expect the war in the Mediterranean, on sea, and above all in the air, to become very fierce, varied, and widespread W'e cleared the Italians out of Cyrenaica, and it now lies with us to purge the province of Germans. That will be a harder task, and we cannot expect to do it at once. You know that I never try to make out that defeats are victories. I have never under-rated the German as a warrior.”

Recalling that he warned the nation u month ago that misfortunes must be expected, Mr Churchill said: “The only thing certain about war is that it is full of disappointments and mistakes.’’ It remained to be seen whether the Germans’ recent expeditions into the Balkans and Africa should prove mistakes. It remained to be seen whether Hitler had not made a mistake in turning the Balkans into a river of blood. "This, however, I will venture —I should be very sorry to see the task of the combatants in the Middle East exchanged and for General WaveU's armies to be in the position of the German invaders,” Mr Churchill declared. “That is only a personal opinion. I can well understand that there may be the request on the following conditions:— That the grandstand and dressingrooms bo not available owing t,o army occupation from May 1 to If inclusive; that during this time the Rugby Union use the dressing-room on the outside

different views. It is certain that fresh dangers besides those threatening Egypt may come upon us in the Mediterranean.

“The war may spread to Spain and Morocco. It may spread eastwards to Turkey and Russia. The

Germans may lay their hands for a time upon the wheat lands of the Ukraine and the oil fields of the Caucasus. They may dominate the Black Sea. They may dominate the Caspian. Who can tell? We shall do our best to meet them and fight them wherever they go.

“But there is one thing certain. There is one thing which rises out of the vast whirlpool which is very sure and solid and no-one in his senses can mistake. Hitler cannot find safety from avenging justice in the East, the Middle East or the Far East. In order to win this war, he must either conquer this island by invasion or he must cut the ocean lifeline which joins us to the United States.”

Dealing with the prospect of invasion, Mr Churchill said that the British strength grew every week, and. comparing the position to-day with what it was last summer, even after making all allowances for much more elaborate mechanical preparation on the part of the enemy, he felt that there was much to be thankful for and, provided that neither our exertions nor our vigilance were relaxed, even for a moment, expressed the belief that we should give a very good account of ourselves.

In referring to Britain’s life-line across the Atlantic, Mr Churchill said that “bad man,” in one of his raging outbursts, threatened intensified war on our shipping with the use of French and Norwegian harbours, while we were denied the use of Irish harbours. To help meet this deadly attack we were depending on the wonderful exertions of the minesweepers and the men who build and repair our ships. There is no need to mention *he heroic deeds of the men of the merchant service. Mr Churchill mentioned that Britain had 2000 ships afloat and hundreds in the danger zone.

“It was with indescribable relief,** he continued, “that I learned of the tremendous decisions lately taken by Fresident Roosevelt and the people of the United States. The American Fleet and flying-boats have been ordered to patrol the wide waters of the Western Hemisphere and warn peaceful shipping of all nations outside the combat zone of the presence of lurking U-boats or cruisers belonging to the two aggressive nations. We British will, therefore, begin to concentrate our protecting forces far more upon the routes near home and take a far heavier toll of U-boats there.

“The German U-boat warfare is carried on entirely contrary to the international agreement which Germany freely subscribed to only a few years ago. It forms no effective blockade, but constitutes only merciless murder and marauding over wide and indiscriminate areas utterly beyond the control of German seapower.” After recalling his request to the United States to “give us the tools and we will finish the job,” .Mr. Churchill continued: “I meant give them to us, put them within our reach, and that is •what, it now seems, the Americans are going to do, and that is why I have a very strong conviction that, though the Battle of the Atlantic will be long and hard and the issue is by no means determined, it has entered upon a more grim but, it seems to me, a far more favourable phase.

“When you come to think of it, the United States is very closely bound up with us now and has engaged itself deeply in giving us material and, within the limits I have mentioned, naval support.

“It is just worth while, therefore, taking a look on both sides of the ocean at the forces which are facing each other in this awful struggle from which there can be no drawing back. No prudent, far-seeing man can doubt that the eventual total defeat of Hitler and Mussolini is certain in view of the respective declared resolves of the British and American democracies.

“There are fewer than 70-million malignant Germans, some of whom are curable, some killable, and most of whom are now engaged in holding down the Austrians, Czechs, Poles, and many other ancient races. The people of the British Empire and the United States number nearly 200-million in their homelands and the British Dominions alone. They possess an unchallengeable command of the ocean, and will soon obtain decisive superiority in the air. They have more wealth and more technical resources, and they make more steel than the whole of the rest of the world put together. They are determined that the cause of freedom shall not be trampled down nor the tide of world progress be turned back by the criminal dictators.” Mr Churchill concluded by quoting the following verse from A. H. Clough’s “Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth”: — For while the tired waves, vainly breaking. Seem here no painful inch to gain, Far back, through creeks and inlets making, Comes silent, flooding in, the main. And not by eastern windows only. When daylight comes, comes in the light: In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly! But westward, look, the land is bright! cricket ground; that the tenancy shall cover the use of the ground and grandstand and two rooms on the ground floor now used by the athletic • clubs; that the question of the fitness of tho ground for play be at the absolute discretion of the city curator; that no play

be permitted on tho ground after August 23; that the rental payable shall be 10 per cent, of the gate and grandstand takings for the season.