“BRITAIN CAN WIN WAR"

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 7 December 1940, Page 5

“BRITAIN CAN WIN WAR"

AN AMERICAN’S OPINION MORAL DRAWN FROM AIR BATTLE INSPIRING”COURAGE [British Official Wireless] Received 7th Dec., 10.30 a.m. RUGBY, 6th December. Mr Ingersoll, editor of “P.M.,” who has just returned to the United States from a visit to England, is emphatically of opinion that Britain can win the war. In a leading article yesterday he stated: “The moral 1 draw from the great air battle between Bth and 1 sth September was not that it had left England weak, but quite the contrary. It was the first major defeat administered to Hitler in eight years.

“When I think back of the people I have known, watched and been with in England I can tell you this: Their courage, cheerfulness and indomitable will to meet and defeat the forces of Fascism are inspiring in the most lateral sense of the word. Watching them war against the forces every decent man hates was a deeply moving experience. Emphatically I think the British can go on winning.”

BOTH SIDES OF THE PICTURE

HOME SECRETARY’S FRANK STATEMENT WHAT IS NECESSARY FOR VICTORY [British Official Wireless] (Received 7th December, 11.20 a.m.) RUGBY, 6th December. The Home Secretary, Mr W. S. Morrison, speaking at Portsmouth, said : “Our Navy, despite tremendous tasks and trials, is powerful on the seas. It has qlready established complete moral ascendancy over its Italian opponent and we are confident it will do the same with the subtler menace of the German U boat. “Our R.A.F, has won one of the greatest and most decisive battles in the world’s history by beating its far more numerous opponent out of the daylight skies above these islands so that millions of town dwellers go about their work with complete disregard of the boasted Luftwaffe, sitting in its nest 15 to 20 minutes away. “Our army is known to have made a tremendous defensive effort which, within a few months, multiplied many ' times over the strength of our island I fortress and correspondingly reduced the chance that an invasion, if it came, might succeed. “But this is one side of the picture oniy. We must not forget the other side. We have ahead of us an even tougher fight than we have yet encountered We face the most formidable military and air power that the world has ever known, with more than half the Continent subjected to the task of feeding and equipping it. We know our Nazi enemy is powerful, crafty and bo’d, missing few opportunities to plan ' his blows shrewdly and time them well. Victory over such a foe does not lie round the corner. Not without effort, stupendous and prolonged, shall we win through. ' These times call for every ounce of will and energy, of inspiration and doggedness that we can put forth. Only one standard of achievement will do. and that is the very highest. Given these things we shall win victory for ourselves and for all mankind.”