INSPIRING WORDS

Taranaki Daily News, 13 September 1940, Page 6

INSPIRING WORDS

Mr. Churchill's broadcast on Wednesday well expressed the resolve and the confidence of Britain not only in her ability to win the war but in the leaders of the nation. The character of the Prime Minister's address indicated his sure conviction that the Government had the full support of the nation, that the public derpanded of him a full exposition of the progress of the war and that so long as the truth were known there would be neither fear nor blame for mistakes of the past. With that assurance Mr. Churchill could, and did, speak plainly. His review of the position included a nlm analysis of the chances of victory or defeat. Coming as it did while the heart of the Empire was enduring the greatest air attack the world has seen, it would not have been surprising if Mr. Churchill had devoted much of his address to the progress oi the battle of London and told in his inimitable manner of the horrors ar}d heroism that have been commonplaces in that titanic struggle. Instead of doing so he placed the fighting at London in its true p-: jective, namely, as but a stage in a greater campaign, the subjugation of the Empire to German rule.

* n — There were no purple patches in Mr. Churchill's address. With careful restraint he set out Britain's war "assets and liabilities," neither exag -rating the former nor minimising the latter. The liabilities he detailed were very sobering. The da: jer of invasion still exists. Preparations by the enemy for this tremendous effort are proceeding with skill and thoroughness. The preparations include large and wellequipped armies, the assemblage. of ships for their transport and in the meantime constant attack by air, by long range guns, by attacks at sea and under its surface upon British territory and shipping. By these attacks the enemy hopes to prepare the way for an invasion and is willing to suffer heavy losses if by doing so.-he can land troops in the British Isles. The coasts of Norway, the Ne^.erlands and France are all potential starting points for a German invasion and the duty of everyone in Britain, said Mr. Churchill, v. as to regard that invasion as a trial ahead and to prepare for resistance to the death. His detailed explan-i'-n of the German preparations will have notified the Nazi leaders that their secrecy has been of little avail, and the cairn rcception of thej explanation by the British nation • may indicate to Herr Hitler and his colleagues that neither threats nor air raids will cause panic in Britain nor cause her to turn from the task she has undertaken, namely, to rid civilisation of a deadly evil. If the liabilities are heavy there was comfort in Mr. Churchill's statement of the Empire's "assets." He spoke to a nation that is in good health and good heart despite the disappointments and the attacks it has suffered, and one that is more united than ever in its war purpose. Never before has Britain created an army comparable in quality, equipment and number to the army that now stands on guard in the United Kingdom. The Royal Air Force has shown courage, skill and prowess. In all but numbers it can claim superiority over the enemy, and in numbers its strength is increasing each week, thanks to the co-operation of civilian workers. Behind the army and the air force is the Royal Navy, still doing its work with traditional thoroughness, meeting each new move of the enemy with. counter-measure, and still the master of the seas. Add to those material assets a national spirit that would prefer death to perpetual bondage and the liabilities, heavy as they may be, are outweighed. • • # • But although these facts support the resolve and justify the confidcnce of the nation they do not dispose of dangers ahead. Mr. Churchill's address concluded with an exhortation that every citizen of Great Britain do his or her part in resisting the invader if he appears or in increasing the nation's ability to take the offensive against the barbarism of which the air attacks upon civilian populations are but one manifestation. The exhortation has been received as Mr. Churchill anticipated. Endeavour is to be intensified and applied until dictatorships are overthrown and "the unconquerabl'e passion of man for freedom" triumphs once more.