AIR PARITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 May 1940, Page 6

AIR PARITY

NOT REACHED BY ALLIES

MR CHURCHILL’S SPEECH

DEFENCE OF NAVAL POLICY

By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright (Received Tin's Dav. 12.20 p.m.) LONDON. May 8. In the House of Commons, Mr Winston Churchill said: “The vote of censure will be taken quite unexpectedly. In this war we have frequently been asked: “Why don’t we take the initiative? The reason is our failure to regain and maintain an air parity with Ger-

many.” Numerical deficiency in the air. he continued, had condemned and would condemn us for some time to much difficulty, suffering and danger, which we must endure until more favourable conditions were established.’’ He added: “The immense enemy air strength made any attempt to dominate the Skagerrak with surface craft too costly to be adopted. Important forces would be necessary to maintain a steady surface patrol. The losses which, could have been inflicted from the air would undoubtedly very soon have constituted a naval disaster. We therefore adopted a submarine blockade, following the opinion of naval authorities. This has been a costly success for Germany, as 7000 to 8000 Germans have been drowned." THE ATTACK ON NARVIK. Mr Churchill said that thousands of corpses had been washed up at the entrance to Oslo Fiord. "What is a loss of 7000 to 8000 men to the totalitarians?" he asked. "What, does that matter to a Government such as we are fighting? The losses are not announced and criticism is not allowed. If there had been a cry or a whimper, it would probably have been dealt with by a brutal blow." The reason that no big ships had been sent to Narvik on the first, day with the destroyers was that the only one available was a battle-cruiser, Mr Churchill stated.

We have only two battle-cruisers.” he continued, “and we felt that it would be the greatest damage to the Fleet’s balance if we lost-one. When the Warspite entered the fiord, the Admiralty was greatly relieved to find no minefields and no destroyers lurking in a narrow angle, ready to fire a bouquet of torpedoes.

If the Warspite had been sunk, we would have been told that it was madness to send one of our most valuable ships into narrow, congested waters. If you dare and the forfeit is it is murder of your sailors; if prurience withholds you, you are craven, cowardly, inept and timid.”