BRITAIN READY FOR DEFENCE

Southland Times, Issue 24174, 10 July 1940, Page 7

BRITAIN READY FOR DEFENCE

CABINET SATISFIED WITH PROGRESS INCREASED INTAKE INTO ARMY GROWING SUPPLIES OF EQUIPMENT (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, July 8. For the last five weeks the War Office has been intensely preoccupied with preparing for the “Battle of Britain.” During this period responsible circles have observed great reticence. It can, however, now be stated that the Cabinet and its military advisers are satisfied with what has been achieved under stress and difficulty. They are confident that the dislocations suffered in the first evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Belgium and Northern France and later in the great efforts made to bring the maximum possible assistance to France in the Battle of the Somme and the second and final evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force have been rectified. The nine divisions brought home from Dunkirk have been reorganized and brought up to full strength and these, with all the other divisions at home, which haVe likewise been brought up to full strength, are now at the disposal of the Commander-in-Chief (General Sir Edmund Ironside).

NEW BATTALIONS FORMED Simultaneously, the intake into the Army has been increased and large numbers of new battalions are being formed. The losses of equipment on the continent are being made good and new equipment is being allocated steadily, in accordance with a carefully formulated programme. In the meantime, and particularly in the past fortnight, admirable progress has been made with the system of defensive works.

Today a reorganized army, which has already shown its mettle face to face with the enemy, stands ready beside its comrades who have not yet been in battle, but who are all the more eager to prove their quality to repulse any invading force that reaches the shores of Britain. Behind them is an evergrowing force training and preparing, and the whole Army—from seasoned troops to rawest recruits —is being imbued with an offensive spirit and with the will to carry the war against the enemy wherever he may be at the appropriate moment, until victory has been achieved.

These great forces, trained and training, are reinforced by important contingents from the Commonwealth, proud to take their part in the protection of the Motherland, and by many Allied units, French volunteers under General Charles de Gaulle, Polish, Czech, Dutch, Belgian and Norwegian soldiers, all determined to throw their weight against the enemy wherever and whenever they can contribute to his eventual defeat, and so avenge the wrongs and humiliations inflicted upon their own homelands and bring back freedom to their own peoples. The formidable rate at which the British Army itself is growing is indicated in the figure, revealed today, of the daily intake which, for a period of seven weeks, will average 7000. Adequate as the available resources- of trained men appear to meet any challenge that lies immediately ahead before further reinforcements of men and the great outpouring of material from the factories gives back the military initiative, it is fully appreciated here that any attack on Britain will be made in the greatest possible force, and with every possible aid from surprise. For that reason there will be the most relentless pursuit of the increase of material and equipment. BRITISH EVACUEES CUT OFF PROBABLE INTERNMENT IN FRANCE (Received July 8, 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, July 7. The Daily Mail says that 500 British subjects in an evacuee train from the south of France were completely cut off and all attempts to make contact with them failed. Nd foreigner is allowed in unoccupied France and the British subjects probably will be interned.

Looking worn and haggard, Baron Maurice de Rothschild, head of the French branch of the famous firm, landed at a Scottish port among 300 refugees from Lisbon.