BRITAIN PREPARED

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14473, 28 June 1940, Page 5

BRITAIN PREPARED

AMERICAN ESTIMATE OF POSITION REJECTED WILL FIGHT FOR YEARS IF NECESSARY BUILDING UP DEFENCES. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, June 26 With reference to a broadcast statement • made in America about British peace approaches in Madrid, .it* is authoritatively stated that there is absolutely no- truth in reports that Sir Samuel" Hoare, British Ambassador to Spain, broached the question of peace or armistice terms. On the contrary, he emphasised the determination of this country toi continue the struggle. Munitions supplies from America are now reaching Britain in large quantities, and there is complete disagreement in authoritative quarters here with the suggestion made in a Press statement by Senator Key Pittman, chairman of the American Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, that wliat the United States is able to contribute cannot affect the result of the war.

WAR WEARINESS IN GERMANY. His view that Britain is totally unprepared for defence is wholly at variance with that of the British Government’s naval, military, and air adv sers. whose considered opinion that there are good and reasonable hopes of final victory was the basis of the decision that the war should be prosecuted unremittingly, “if necessary for years, if necessary alone.” | A Ministry of Information an- ! liouncemeiit tonight emphasises that the warmest appreciation is felt in Biitain for the magnificent effort now being made in the factories and workshops of the United States to help the Allies in the coming struggle. Britain" is facing it with confidence, and is determined to carry it through to victory. This confidence is strengthened by trustworthy information that has recently reached London that in Germany war weariness is already setting in and that the German people, who have been living on short rations and suffering many privations, are very tired alter their difficult winter.

There is also evidence that the sen ior officers of the German forces have, as a result of the Flanders fighting, acquired a healthy respect for the British Army, and the R.A.F has established such a reputation for dash and daring that early estimates of the possibilities of reducing British resistance by air attack have undergone a change.