BRITISH AID TO GREECE

Southland Times, Issue 24421, 29 April 1941, Page 5

BRITISH AID TO GREECE

Honour Of Empire

Was Involved

(8.0.W.) _ RUGBY, April 27. Stating that it had been imperative that British policy should be upon the highest level and that honour should be its only guide, Mr Churchill said:— “Very few people realize how small were the forces with which General Wavell—that fine commander- whom we cheered in the good days and will back through the bad days—took the bulk of the masses in Libya prisoners. In none of his successive victories could General Wavell maintain in the desert or bring into action at one time more than two divisions or about 30,000 men. A call was made upon us which could not be resisted. Let me tell you about that call. “You will remember how in November the Italian dictator fell upon the unoffending Greeks and, without reason and without warning, invaded their country and how the Greek nation, reviving the classic faith, held his armies back. You will remember how, meanwhile, Hitler—who had been creeping and worming his way steadily forward, doping and pinioning one after another —Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria—suddenly made it clear that he would come to the rescue of his fellow criminal. I

“The lack of unity among the Balkan States had enabled him to build up a mighty army in their midst. While nearly all the Greek troops were busy beating the Italians the tremendous German military machine suddenly towered up on their other frontier. In their mortal peril the Greeks turned to us for succour. Strained as were our resources, we could not say them nay. SOLEMN GUARANTEE “By solemn guarantee given before the war Britain had promised them her help. They declared they would fight for their native soil even if neither |of their neighbours made common | cause with them, and even if we I left them to their fate. But we could not do that. There are rules against that kind of thing and to break those rules would be fatal to the honour of the British Empire, without which we could neither hope nor deserve to win. The fortunes of war are fickle and changing, but an act of shame would deprive us of the respect we now enjoy throughout the world. During the last year we have gained by our bear- I ing and conduct a potent hold upon the sentiments of the people of the United States.

“Never in our long history have we been held in such admiration and regard across the Atlantic Ocean,” said Mr Churchill. “In that great republic, now in much travail and stress of soul, it is customary to use all the many varied and solid arguments about American interests and American safety which depend upon the destruction of Hitler and his foul gang and their even fouler doctrines. But in the long run believe me—for I know—the action of the United States will be dictated not by methodical calculation of profit and loss, but Ly moral sentiments and the growing flush of resolve which lifts the wills of men and nations and springs from the spiritual foundations of human life itself. We, for our part were of course, bound to hearken to the Greek appeal to the utmost limits of our strength. “We put the case to th? Dominions— Australia and New Zealand—and their Governments without in any way ignoring the hazards told us that they felt the same as we did.

ANZACS SENT TO GREECE “So an important part of the mobile portions of the Army of the Nile was sent to Greece in fulfilment of our pledge. It happened that the divisions available and best-suited to this task were from New Zealand and Australia and that only half the troops who took part in that dangerous expedition came from the Mother Country. I see that German propaganda is trying to make bad blood between us and Australia by making out that we used them to do what we would not have asked of the British Army. I shall leave it to Australia to deal with that taunt. “Let us see what happened. We knew that the forces we could send to Greece would not by themselves alone be sufficient to stem the German tide of invasion, but there was a very real

hope that the neighbours of Greece would by our intervention be drawn to stand in line together with her while time remained. How nearly that came off will be known some day. “The tragedy of Yugoslavia has been that this brave people had a Government which hoped to purchase ignoble immunity by submission to the Nazi will. Thus, when at last the people of j Yugoslavia found out where they were being taken and rose in one spontaneous surge of revolt, they saved the soul and future of their country, but it was already too late to save its territory. They had not time to mobilize their armies, but were struck down by the ruthless and highly-mechanized German armies before they could even bring their armies into the field. “Great disasters have occurred in the Balkans. Yugoslavia has been beaten down. Only in the mountains can she continue her resistance. The Greeks have been overwhelmed. Their victorious Albanian Army has been cut off and forced to surrender and it has been left to the Anzacs and to their British comrades to fight their way back to the sea, leaving their mark on all who would have hindered them.

i “I turn aside to indulge for a moment in a little light relief. I dare say you J have read in the newspapers that, by a | special proclamation the Italian dictator congratulated the Italian ‘Army in Albania on the glorious laurels it had gained by its victory over the Greeks. Here, surely, is the world’s record in the domain of the ridiculous and the contemptible. That whipped jackal Mussolini, who, to save his own skin has made all Italy a vassal State to Hitler, comes frisking up by the side of the German tiger with the yelps not only of a puppet—that could have been understood—but even of triumph.”