CALL TO EMPIRE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 January 1940, Page 5

CALL TO EMPIRE

SUPREME TEST OF WAR

DEMOCRACY v TOLALITARIANISM.

EVERY OUNCE OF EFFORT

REQUIRED. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, January 27. “The whole life and energy of the British nation, the Empire and the Allies must be utilised to the last ounce. Come, then; let us to our task, to battle, to toil, to fill the armies, rule the air, pour out munitions, strangle the U-boats, sweep the mines, plough our land, build our ships, guard our streets, succour our wounded, lift up the downcast and honour the brave. Let us go forward together, all parts of the Empire. There is not a week, not a day, not an hour to be lost.”

Saying this, the First lord of the Admiralty, Mr Winston Churchill, concluded a speech at Manchester this afternoon that opened the British Ministerial campaign to aid the prosecution of the war.

The national purpose in the war was affirmed and reaffirmed in a large number of gatherings. The greatest was that at Manchester, where Mr Churchill’s address had to be relayed to a crowd of hundreds overflowing from the vast Free Trade Hall. Here over the past 40 years, Mr Churchill has achieved several of his greatest oratorical triumphs.

The central theme of his impressive speech was a comparison of the strength—in faith, and resilience in endurance, and in action —of democracy and totalitarianism faced with the supreme test of war. He broadly reviewed the course of the war and referred to the grim struggle of the future. A few unimportant but organised interruptions by followers of the Fascist Party leader, Sir Oswald Mosley, gave Mr Churchill an opportunity, eagerly seized by this wily debater, for a number of sallies which, created great amusement in the vast audience.