SILENT WEAPON

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 3 December 1940, Page 2

SILENT WEAPON

PRESSURE OF BLOCKADE MINISTER’S ENCOURAGING SPEECH "The blockade is a silent weapon. It generates tremendous economic pressure which, in God’s good time, will break dewn German and Italian resistance.” declared the Minister of Economic Warfare, Dr. Hugh Dalton in a broadcast from London to American listeners. He predicted that the strength of the enemy, admittedly very great, I would snap quite suddenly. Dr. Dalton said that in 1918 the j blockade, acting in support of the armed forces, was a decisive factor in | ! ending the war. So long as the British Navy continued to command the seas, and it would, and so long as the Air Force continued, and it would, to bomb the enemy’s oil plants, oil stocks and oil refineries . . . then, in a period tc be measured not in years but in months, the enemy oil position would be one of great and growing scarcity. The stocks of oil. rubber and copper which the Germans looted in the > countries they overran had now all been used up. and so the Germans were now back where they were six months ago. or worse. In Hitler’s I conquered European territories there were no rubber plantations, no oil | wells, no synthetic oil plants, no copper mines. i Italy was most vulnerable to the I blockade. She was a liability, not an asset, to the Axis, and Italy's heart, ' hi knew, was not in this war. “BOMBING TYRANNY” Dr. Dalton thanked America for the destroyers she had sent Britain, and said that the strain on the navy was being relieved by other means as well. “Bombs and blockades support each other.” he said. “If we are to have our peace aims later we must have J good bombs now. Our air force is showing to the full the offensive spirit. We are not only defending liberty, we are bombing tyranny. “Here on the edge of Europe we strike at the heart of evil. Our aim is to smash both the power and the will ol the enemy to carry on the war. The Germans can develop a great strength. It is a very brutal strength, but it is also a very brittle strength. We have snapped it before and we shall make it snap again, quite suddenly. Air attacks. plus economic pressure, based on sea power, will create the conditions of our victory and in the final chapter of this war the slaves will rise in revolt against the Nazi bosses and the forces of liberation will sweep across Europe. “To-day there are too many good targets and too few good bombers. As soon as we have enough bombers we shall bomb the enemy's war machine to pieces. We here in Britain are bombed, every day and every night, but we shall never give in. We are mentally and morally prepared to face every experience except defeat. We know we are defending all that remains in Europe of true human values.” HOW AMERICA CAN HELP i Dr. Dalton expressed Britain’s thanks to America for her decision to give all help short of war, and suggested ways in which much more might be done. Most important of all, America could tighten her export controls to ensure that no vital materials got through to the enemy. That was a tremendous weapon. if Americans chose to use it. “This war. I fear, must last a long while yet, but I am quite sure of the end.” Dr. Dalton said. . . . “It is too soon yet to make a blue print for the new world, but there must surely be a world economic plan. We must finish with the old economics of scarcity and anarchy. We must found a new economics of plenty and found it on a rational plan. . . . ‘Forward for the Free.’ Let that be our watchword. “We here in Britain are in the front line, each of us proud to die, if need be, for the liberty larger than our own. We greet you. our American friends, with a smile. We are confident in victory and content with fate. In the immortal words of our great leader, Winston Churchill. ‘We shall fight on unconquerable until the curse of Hitler i: lifted from the brows of men.’ We are sure that in the end all will be well.”