GREAT CHALLENGE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 155, 31 May 1940, Page 8

GREAT CHALLENGE

TO HITLER’S HORDES. FIRM ALLIED MORALE. / (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph.— Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) ' RUGBY, May 29, Broadcasting to the Empire today, Mr Harold Nicholson (Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Information), described the position of the British and. French armies in Flanders as one of serious difficulty, operating as they were on several different fronts.

“The GermanSj” he continued, “have thrown into the battle the whole weight of their air force and mechanised divisions in a supreme effort to reach a final decision within a few weeks. We must face the facts. They may l>e able to reach a decision in this particular area but we must remember above all that it will not be the final decision. The great armies of Franco are now massing upon a defensive line to the south on the main battle area and under the leadership of a General whose very name is associated with victory. They are prepared to deny the German armies that complete victory for which they hoped.” • Paying a tribute to’ the British army whose front, he said, had not been pierced, Mr Nicholson said it was being shown that man for man the soldiers’ of j;he Empire are superior to the enemy 1 in initiative and will. “I do not think,” he said, “we shall hear much more after this battle of those strange legends which were spread bv enemy propagandists to the effect that the British Empire had grown old and tired and the tough fibre of our ancestors has been softened by years of security, prosperity, and peace. WORTHY SUCCESSORS. “The younger generation which are now fighting on ground made sacred by the hiood of their fathers have proved themselves worthy to succeed to the men who fought at Vimy or in the Dardanelles.

“The German military theory that by the concentration of force they are able to stun the morale of even the most stout-hearted enemy has not worked with the young men of the British Empire. The Germans have brought against them the most terrific apparatus of terrors which lias ever been devised hv the ingenuity of man, and they now learn that the soldiers of the Empire know, no fear, but they have learnt more.” METHODS CAUSE RAGE.

“We are a gentle-hearted race and it takes much to rouse us to rage, but it is told by those who have returned from Flanders that a mood of fierce, moral indignation was roused in our soldiers by witnessing the methods the Germans have employed. It is not merely the bombing of open towns. It is not merely their fertility in devising and inventing more weapons of destruction more horrible than any known. They have done other things. They have deliberately and systematically bombed hospital ships lying in French harbours transporting wounded across the Channel, but more dreadful than all this is the deliberate manner in which the Germans have aroused and exploited the fear and terror of the civilian population in order to confuse and dismay the fighting forces. ‘‘The roads are blocked by streams of refugees and upon these hapless old men, Women and children German bombers have dived, scattering ma-chine-gun fire throughout those crowded people, and at moments even crushing their helpless' bodies underneath the iron teeth of tanks. It is this exploitation of fear which is at the root of so much of the Nazi doctrine that has filled 1 our men with rage and indignation.” Stating that the news was bad, and even worse must be expected in the near future, Mr Nicholson reminded his listeners that the Germans had been forging instruments of destruction for seven years with the deliberate intention of crushing Britain and France in a few months.

“They may win this battle,” he said, “but they cannot win the war. We know here that when the full fury of the onrush has been stemmed, when the dreadful toll of loss has been counted, they will see they are faced with the same resistance and resolution as conquered them in 1918, and France and Britain are at last awakening to the danger threatening them. NERVES OF STEEL. Saying that the nerves of French and British people had been toughened to the likeness of steel hawsers by recent events, Mr Nicholson continued: “Sorrow is inevitable, but hope is also inevitable. “The resources of our Empire far exceed anything Germany can command, and whereas they cannot possibly withstand a prolongation of the war until that moment when our infinite production gives us mechanical as well as moral superiority, we here can endure confidently until that certain moment comes.” PROSPECTS OF INVASION. Mr Nicholson then considered the prospects of an invasion of Britain and stated that a heavy air bombardment was to be expected, and it might well be by employing new methods thousands of German troops might be landed in Britain. He reminded his listeners, however, that- the British Navy was more powerful and efficient than ever before and he said 45,000,000 of a virile, unbending people would not allow even thousands of enemy troops to remain long on British shores. He then spoke of what he described as the “most flagrant” of the many lies propagated since 1933 —the German army was not. conquered in 1918. Mr Nicholson recalled that August 8 1918, was called the “black day in Germany’s history” by General Ludendorff and the battle which began that day was the beginning of the end. “By October.” he continued, “the German High Command had informed the Government that a break-through might occur at any moment and urged them to sue for peace. On October 17 Ludendorff informed the Government that the army had completely collapsed and negotiations for peace were an urgent necessity if anything were to be saved. On November 11 the Germans sued for an armistice and' surrendered. During this great battle alone, a battle winch continued from ’August 8 to November, we bad captured 385,500 German prisoners and 6615 guns. That surely was a complete victory. Stating that it was useful to recall, this and at the same time remember the feelings engendered by the German advance in March, 1918. Mr Nicholson said then many people felt the war -was lost,'whereas it was decisively won eight months later. “We conquered them once, and .shall conquer them, again,” lie concluded. “The, day, will come when

throughout the great Empire, the lights will go»up again, bells will ring out, and wo will remember with honour anti gratitude those men who fought so stupendously ill the fierce, great battle of the war and who by their resistance and indomitable courage gave us in these dark days of 1940 the conviction that the character of our race is as strong as it ever was. With such men and women to fight our victory is sure.”