CAUSE FOR THANKFULNESS

Southland Times, Issue 24357, 11 February 1941, Page 5

CAUSE FOR THANKFULNESS

Li the course of his speech Mr Churchill said: “Five months have passed since I spoke to the British nation and the Empire on the broadcast. In time of war there is a lot to be said for the motto ‘Deeds not words.’ All the same it is a good thing to look around from time to time and take stock. Certainly our affairs have prospered in several directions during the last four or five months; far better than most of us would have ventured to hope. We have stood our ground, faced by two dictators in the hour of what seemed to be their overwhelming triumph and we have shown ourselves capable, so far, of standing up against them alone after the heavy defeats of the German air force by our fighters in August and September. Hitler did not desire to attempt the invasion of this island although he had need to do so and had made vast preparations. Baffled by this grandiose project he thought to break the spirit of the nation by bombing first London and afterwards our great cities.”

After recounting the victorious progress of the Arm yof the Nile, Mr Churchill said, "Egypt and the Suez Canal are safe and the port, base and airfields of Benghazi constitute a strategic point of high consequence to the whole war in the Eastern Mediterranean.” He paid high tribute to General Wavell and the leaders under his command.

Referring to the flexible resources of British sea power Mr Churchill added, “How far reaching these resources are we can see from what happened at dawn this morning, when our Western Mediterranean Fleet, under Vice-Ad-iral Sir James Somerville, entered the Gulf of Genoa and bombarded, in a shattering manner, the naval base from which, perhaps, a Nazi expedition might soon have sailed to attack General Veygand in Algeria or Tunis.

“It is right that the Italian people should be made to feel the sorry plight into which they have been dragged by the dictator, Mussolini, and, if the cannonade of Genoa rolling along the coasts and reverberating in the mountains, reached the ears of our French comrades in their grief and misery, it might cheer them with the feeling that friends are near and that Britannia rules the waves. AMERICAN GOODWILL “While these events have been carrying us stride by stride from what many people thought was a forlorn position—and it was certainly a very grave position in May and June—to one which permits us to speak with sober confidence of our power to discharge our duty, heavy though it may be in future, while this has been happening a mighty tide of sympathy, goodwill and effective aid has begun to flow across the Atlantic in support of the world cause vhich is at stake. Distinguished Americans have come over to see things here at the front, and to find out how the United States can help us best and soonest. “In Mr Hopkins, who has been my frequent companion during the last three weeks, we have an envoy of the President who has been newly reelected to his august office. In Mr Wendell Willkie we have welcomed the champion of the great Republican Party. We may be sure they will both tell the truth about what they have seen over here, and more than that we do not ask. The rest we leave with good confidence

to the judgment of the President, congress and people of the United States. “I have been so very careful since I have been Prime Minister not to encourage false hopes or prophesy smooth and easy things, and yet the tale which I have to tell today is one which must justly and rightly give us cause for deep thankfulness, and also, I think, for strong comfort and even rejoicing. But now I must dwell upon more serious, darker, and more dangerous aspects of the vast scheme of the war.

“Hitler’s confederate, Mussolini, has reeled back in Albania, but the Nazis, having absorbed Hungary and driven Rumania into frightful interna! convulsion are now already upon the Black Sea. Many preparations have been made for the movement of German troops into, or through, Bulgaria, and. perhaps, this southward move has already begun. WARNING TO BALKANS

i “We saw what happened last May in ' the Low Countries—how they hoped for I the best, how they clung to their hopes, | and how wholly they were deceived. | overwhelmed, plundered, enslaved and I since starved. Much will certainly ‘ happen as American aid becomes effective, as our air power grows, as we be- ' come a well armed nation, as our armies in the East increase in strength. But nothing is more certain than that, if the countries of South Eastern Europe allow themselves to be pulled to pieces | one by one, they will share the fate of I Holland, Denmark and Belgium, and I none can tell how long it will be before i the hour of their deliverance strikes. ’ One of our difficulties is to convince • some of these neutral countries in ■ Europe that we are going to win.” I Mr Churchill added that he hoped Bulgaria would not make the same mis- ; take as in the last war. Then he went I on, “In the Central Mediterranean the ' Italian Quisling, who is called Mussoi lini, and the French Quisling, cotnmonI ly called Laval, are both in their difi ferent ways trying to make their coun- ; tries into doormats for Hitler and his . new order in the hope of being able to I keep, or get, the Nazi Gestapo and GerI man bayonets to enforce their rule upon their fellow countrymen. I cannot tell how the matter will go, but at any rate we shall do our best to fight for the : Central Mediterranean.

“I dare say you will have noticed a very significant air action fought over Malta a fortnight ago. The Germans sent an entire Geschwader of divebombers to Sicily. They seriously injured our new aircraft carrier, Illustrious, and then, as this wounded ship was sheltering in Malta harbour, they concentrated upon her all their force so as to beat her to pieces. “But they were met by the batteries of Malta, which is one of the strongest defended fortresses in the world against air attack. They were met by the Fleet Air Arm and by the R.A.F., and in two or three days they had lost out of 150 divebombers upwards of 90, 50 of which were destroyed in the air and 40 on the ground. Although the Illustrious in her damaged condition was one

of the greatest prizes of the air and naval war, the German Geschwader accepted the defeat. They would not come any more. All the necessary repairs were made to the Illustrious in Malta Harbour, and she

steamed safely off to Alexandria under her own power at 23 knots.”

It was not an easy military operation to invade an island like Great Britain without command of the seas and without command of the air, and then to face what would be waiting on shore for the invader. Mr Churchill stressed the risk of over-confidence and of slothfulness and said a Nazi invasion of Britain last autumn would have been more or less an improvised affair. Hitler had taken it for granted that, when France gave in, Britain would give in, but she did not, and Hitler had to think again. Invasion now would be much more carefully prepared with landing craft and other apparatus, all of which would have been planned and manufactured during the winter months. They must be prepared to meet gas attacks, parachute attacks and glider attacks with constant forethought and practised skill.

Mr Churchill emphasized that what Sir John Dill had said, and what he himself had pointed out

last year, was that, in order to win the war, Hitler must destroy Great Britain. He might cany havoc to the Balkans, he might tear great provinces out of Russia, he might march to the Caspian and to the

gates of India, but all that would

avail him nothing. Mr Churchill said that Mr Willkie had brought with him a letter of introduction from Mr Roosevelt, in which the President had included a quotation from Longfellow, which the President had said applied to the British as well as tire Americans. The quotation was: Thou too sail on O ship of state, Sail on O union strong and great, Humanity with all its fears, With all the hopes of future years, Is hanging breathless on thy fate.

What was the answer that should be sent in the name of the people of Britain, Mr Churchill asked. That answer would be, “put your confidence in us. Give us your faith and your blessing and, under Providence, all will be well. We shall not fail or falter, we shall not weaken or tire. Neither the sudden shock of battle nor the long-drawn trials will wear us down. Give us the tools and we shall finish the job.” CONGRATULATIONS FROM NEW ZEALAND (British Official Wireless) WELLINGTON, February 10. The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, sent the following message to Mr Churchill: “Hearty congratulations on your splendid address which was received here this morning under excellent radio conditions. Its inspiring and heartening character will strengthen the will and fire the spirit of all British peoples throughout the world in their determination to complete the task to which they have set their hand. The courageous example of the people of the Homeland in the midst of their terrible dangers and grim privations calls forth our deepest admiration. We would like you to know our thoughts and prayers are with you always and that in our own war effort we endeavour to match our energies with those of the British people.”