MR CHURCHILL'S SPEECH

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23971, 11 June 1943, Page 5

MR CHURCHILL'S SPEECH

AMERICAN COMMENT REFERENCE TO FUTURE OPERATIONS (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) NEW YORK, June 9. Mr Churchill’s “invasion speech” is hailed in America as a trumpet call. The point exciting the greatest interest is Mr Churchill’s reference to the approach of “amphibious operations of peculiar complexity and hazard.” The United States Secretary of the Navy (Colonel Knox) said: “This phrase is a conservative estimate of the facts.” The “New York Times” says: “Mr Churchill’s references to amphibious warfare might still indicate a war of nerves, but such a war cannot continue indefinitely, because it would ruin Allied morale and boost that of the Axis.” The New York “Herald-Tribune" comments: “Mr Churchill has told the enemy nothing, while hinting at every, thing.” The war commentator of the “Herald-Tribune” (Major ' Fielding Eliot) says: “Mr Churchill’s references to amphibious warfare mean that we are about to cash in on our command of the sea in a strictly offensive sense.” Hanson Baldwin, writing in the “New York Times,” says: “It is obvious now that the Mediterranean is scheduled to be the scene of one of the next great acts of the war, but the French problems in North Africa must be settled first. Invasion of Axis strongholds in the Mediterranean may come at any time or may be delayed for weeks.”