MR. CHURCHILL'S SPEECH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23661, 21 May 1940, Page 6

MR. CHURCHILL'S SPEECH

With his usual directness and energy, Mr. Churchill has spoken his mind in this "solemn hour." Primarily, of course, he has addressed the British people at Home, but his speech has been conveyed throughout the Empire, and also to France and the United States in a significant extension of his audience. He has chosen an opportune moment: while the situation on the Western Front is as yet undefined, even obscure in some respects, it is well that he, with his intimate and responsible contact, should describe events as he broadly sees them and make them the basis of an appeal to those most deeply concerned. Two phases of his speech ought to be given chief heed. One is its undisguised gravity. If there should still be any inclined to regard the outlook for the Allies lightly or indifferently, an inclination likely to increase in direct ratio to distance from the conflict, Mr. Churchill's words ought to shatter that mood. Utterly foreign to his nature is a craven yielding to threats of disaster ; yet he has not hesitated to speak of a "supreme emergency" likely to arise as a sequence to the | titanic battle in Franco —another battle, "for our island, for all that Britain is and all that Britain means." He urges thought of this possibility as a duty. On the other hand, a second and consequent duty is impressed, as equally urgent, upon all concerned, no matter where they are—to maintain an unflinching courage and to bend every effort in a sacrificing determination to defeat the enemy j and about eventual victory, if this spirit be maintained, he has not the slightest doubt. Such confidence, when frankly associated with acknowledgment of peril, is inspiringly contagious. To be cherished in these days is his uplifting conclusion: "If this is one of the most awe-striking periods in the long history of France and Britain, it is also, beyond all doubt, the most sublime^."