CONFIDENCE IN GOVERNMENT

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21415, 8 May 1941, Page 7

CONFIDENCE IN GOVERNMENT

HOUSE OF COMMONS DEBATE MR WINSTON CHURCHILL GRIMLY CONFIDENT VICTORY SURE LONG AND HARD STRUGGLE (United Press Assn —Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received May 8, 11.40 a.m.) LONDON, May 7 The House of Commons debate on the war situation was concluded today, the House passing a motion of confidence in the Government by 457 to 3. The Prime Minister, Mr Winston Churchill, was the last speaker, and his speech of over an hour completely reviewed the present situation. He was grimly confident of the ultimate result of the struggle, but again warned the peoples of the Empire that the struggle would be long and hard. Mr Churchill revealed that General Wavell has about 500,000 men under his command. The equipment of the British Army is growing steadily and the Imperial Forces in the various theatres are being supplied with the best of all kinds of equipment.

Reply to Criticism Mr Churchill said the debate had been marked by a high sense of responsibility in all who had taken part. Referring to Mr Lloyd George’s criticisms, he agreed that in Mr Eden’s speech much could have been said about Spain and about Russia, but he was not sure that there would have been any advantage by saying it, nor would the House have profited by debating at length about a sad and squalid tale about what was going on at Vichy. In regard to Turkey, he reminded Mr Lloyd George that she had no right under the convention to prevent ships from passing through the Dardanelles while at peace. To do so would amount to a decision to quit neutrality. Mr Lloyd George had criticised the procedure of the vote of confidence, but after the reverses and disappointments in the field the British Government had a right to know where it stood with the House of Commons and where the House stood with the country. Still more was this knowledge important for the fate of foreign nations, especially those which were balancing their foreign j policy at present. It was very natural that the House should not be entirely satisfied with the recent turn of things in the Middle-East, and that some members should be acutely disappointed that we had not been able to defend Greece successfully against the Italian and German armies, or that we should have been able to keep or extend our conquests in Libya. Watched With Agony “For myself I watched the fate of Greece after her valiant repulse of the Italian invader, with agony. The only relief I feel is that everything in human power was done by us and that our honour as a nation is clear. If anything could add to the pang of these emotions it would be the knowledge that we had of the impending outrage with so little power to avert from this heroic and famous people a fate so hideous and undeserved. “So far as the German invasion of Bulgaria was concerned we had long and ample warning. It is three months since I stated in a broadcast that the Bulgarian airfields were being occupied. Every week one watched the remorseless movement of the vast German forces through Hungary, through Rumania into Bulgaria, and toward Croatia, towards Yugoslavia, until at last no fewer than forty German divisions, five of them armoured, were massed. Hitler told us it was a crime on our part in such circumstances to go to the aid of Greece.” New Zealand Premier Quoted “I do not wish to enter into an argument with experts. Looking back, I can only feel, as the Premier of New Zealand has so nobly declared, that if we had to tread that stony field even with the knowledge we possess today, I for one would do the same thing again, and that is the view of all my colleagues in the War Cabinet and on the Defence Committee, and I believe that that view is generally agreed upon by this House. “But military operations must be judged by the success which attends them rather than the sentiment which inspires them. It remains to be seen whether the Italian invader invading Greece or the German invader coming to the rescue and engaging Yugoslavia in bloody strife gained an advantage or suffered loss when the full story of the war is told. “From a strictly military viewpoint the addition of the Balkan peoples to the number of ancient independent States and sovereignties under the Nazi yoke that must be held down by force and intrigue may by no means prove a source of strength to the German army, while in its political aspect nothing can more surely debar the Germans from shaping a new Europe—and one will certainly emerge—than the fact that the German name and the German race are becoming more universally and more intensely hated amongst all peoples in all lands than any race of which history bears a record. British Empire and America “I derive confidence that the willpower of the British nation, expressing itself through a steadfast House, will once again perform its liberating functions and humbly exercise and execute its high purpose. I say this with more confidence because we are no longer a small island lost in the northern mists, but around us are gathered in proud array all the nations of the British Empire, and now across the Atlantic the United States proclaims herself by our side, or at any rate near our side.”

Mr Hore-Belisha Answered Referring to Mr L. Hore-Belisha’s criticism of the Government on our admitted shortage of heavy tanks, Mr Churchill said: “We are now making every month as many heavy tanks as there existed in' the British army when Mr Hore Belisha left the War Office, and before the end of the year we will be producing nearly double that, without taking into account the immense production of the United States.” Replying to Mr Lloyd George’s criticisms on the composition of the War Cabinet, Mr Churchill said: “There is, in fact, a War Cabinet oi eight, of whom five have had no regular departments and three represented the main general organisms of the State —Foreign Affairs, Finance and Labour. It gave its broad sanctions to the main policy and conduct of the war. Under their authority the Chiefs of Staff of the three services sit daily together, and I, as Premier and Minister of Defence, preside, summoning when necessary the three service Ministers. “All the larger issues of military policy are brought before the Defence Committee, which for several mojiths has consisted of the three Chiefs of Staff. Three service Ministers, and four members of the Cabinet—the Premier, the Lord Privy Seal, the Foreign Secretary and Lord Beaverbrook. “That is the body and that is the machine which works easily and flexibly at present, and I do not propose to make any changes until further advised. “In this whole business of Libya and Greece I can assure the House that no violence has been done to expert military opinion. All decisions have been taken unitedly, freely and voluntarily, with goodwill, under the hard pressure of events.” He noted the tendency in some quarters, especially abroad, to talk about the Middle East, as if we could afford to lose our position there and yet carry on the war to victory on the oceans and the air. Gravity of Ibsue “But no one must underrate the gravity of the issue being fought in the Nile Valley. The loss of the Nile Valley and the Suez Canal, the loss of our position in the Mediterranean, and of Malta, would be among the heaviest blows we could sustain. “We are determined to fight for them with all the resources of the British Empire, and we have every reason to believe that we 'shall be successful.”