BATTLE OF THE PORTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 157, 3 June 1940, Page 7

BATTLE OF THE PORTS

MINISTER’S THRILLING STORY FOUR-FIFTHS OF B.E.F. SAFE ARMIES’ VALIANT DEEDS (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph— Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) Received June 3, 11.35 a.m. ’ RUGBY, June 2. The Minister of War (Mr R. A. Eden) broadcast to the world to-night the story of the saving of four-fifths of the British Expeditionary Force, and concluded with a call to the nation to work as it has never worked before. Referring to the great Battle of the Ports which has been raging during the past three weeks, Mr Eden said: “Germany as made a great strategic gain—the loss to us in equipment .andmmtenal has been heavy. But there is now another side •to this picture. The bulk of the B.E.F. has been saved and, quite apart from what the French have done for their own torces, we have been able to bring tens of thousands of our xrench Allies off with us at Dunkirk.” SPIRIT OF TRIUMPH. I —~ *

“Nor is the effort ended,” declared Mr Eden. ‘‘Four .days ago not one of us would have dared to hope that the isolated Allied Armies would have i ought their way through the bottleneck to the coast. It is the spirit of ,tbe B.E.F. that has won through. “These men have marched hundreds of miles,; they have fought countless actions with an enemy that hemmed them in and pressed upon them from three sides. The German High Command proudly announced that they were surrounded. They have fought their way out! ” ; HELD THE LINE. After describing the sequence of events since, at the call of the King of the Belgians, the B.E.F. marched into Belgium and took up its position on the Iliver Dyle, and telling the story of the rearguard actions by which the force fell back on the ports, Mr Eden said :—- ■ “From the moment of the collapse of the Belgian Army there was only one course left to the Allied Armies —to hold the line around Dunkirk, the only port that remained, and to embark as many men as possible before their rearguards were overwhelmed. Thanks to the magnificent and untiring co-operation of the Allied Navies and' Air Forces we have been able to embark and save more than four-fifths of that B.E.F. which the Germans claimed, to have surrounded. “The Army’s debt to the Royal Navy; the Merchant Navy, and the Royal Air Force can never be forgotten. We have been compelled to destroy much valuable material. We have suffered casualties. Once again our Ally has to bear the invasion of the sacred soil of France. .♦'•V; GERMAN FAILURE. “But the Germans, in spite of the huge losses which we have known them to have suffered, have failed in their main object—to surround and annihilate the Allied Armies in the north. The British Expeditionary Force still exists, not as a handful of fugitives, but as a body of seasoned veterans. “We have had great losses of equipment, but our men have gained immeasurably in the experience of warfare and self-reliance. A vital weapon to any Army is its spirit. Ours has been tried and tempered in the furnace. It has not been found wanting. This refusal to accept defeat—that is the guarantee of final victory, declared Mr Eden.ADMIRATION AROUSED. PRAISE IN FOREIGN PRESS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, June 1. Extracts from the foreign Press reaching London reflect the profound admiration aroused abroad by the news of the disciplined withdrawal in laige numbers of the Allied troops cut oit m Belgium and Northern France. The military correspondent of the Courier de Geneve writes: ‘ General Blanchard and General Lord Gort and General Prioux have been writing for days on the ne.w Yser battlefield one of the finest pages of military history of our times.” ■ Another Swiss paper, the Tribune dc Lausanne, says: “We bow belore the heroism of the soldiers, before the calmness of .the officers who faced so resolutely a tragic situation created in the midst of the battle by the commander of the Belgian Army.’ The military correspondent of the New York Times comments: ‘ lhe heroic resistance of the Allied troops has given General Weygand tune to holster and strengthen his defensive line on the Somme and the Aisne. lhe fight to the death in the pocket in Flanders lias not been wasted. Britain has been prepared against the threat of invasion, the morale of France has been buttressed, and the old system has been scrapped, an army reorganised, and a ' defensive line established, while the Germans have suffered heavy losses.” “SOLDIERS OF CIVILISATION.” This newspaper writes editorially : “So long as the English tongue survives, the work at Dunkirk, will be spoken of with reverence. The rags and blemishes which have hidden the ■soub of democracy fell away there. Beaten but-unconquered, m shining triumph, she faced the enemy. It was the common man of the free countries rising in all his glory out of mill, office, factory, mine, farm and shop. This shining thing is the soul of free men.” ~ _ , The New York Herald-Tribune also pays an eloquent tribute to the Allied troops: “There'have been terrible retreats* perilous embarkations anu heroic rearguard actions in the past, but no combination of all of them on a scale like this. Many will be saved through the courage of all and everj man who may be lost m that blazing coast will only nerve those armies to greater efforts, speed the training his successors and -force the the more furious production of Pbines, tanks and guns. These are the sohliers of civilisation who will save by then suffering everything which manes civil ised life of value.