EVE OF BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 July 1940, Page 5

EVE OF BATTLE

MR CHURCHILL’S MESSAGE TO LEADERS ALERT AND CONFIDENT ENERGY DEMANDED. CONFIDENCE IN BRITISH FORCES. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 4. In liis speech in the House of Commons on the seizure of the French Fleet, Mi' Churchill read to the House a message which had been sent to all those serving in important positions under the Crown. Following is the text, of the message: — “On what may be the eve of aii attempted invasion of, or a battle for, our native land, the Prime Minister desires to impress upon all persons holding responsible positions in the Government and the fighting services or in the civil departments their duty to maintain, a spirit of alert and confident energy. “While every precaution must be taken that the time and means afford, there are no grounds for supposing that more German troops can be landed in this country either from the air or across the sea than can be destroyed or captured by the strong forces at present under arms. The Royal Air Force is in excellent order, and at the highest strength it has yet attained. The German Navy was never so weak nor the British Army at home so strong as now. “The Prime Minister expects that all his Majesty’s servants in high places to set an example of steadiness and resolution. They should check or rebuke expressions of loose, ill-digested opinion in their circles or by subordinates. They should not hesitate to report, or, if necessary, remove, any officers or officials who are found to be consciously exercising a disturbing or distressing influence and whose talk is calculated to spread alarm or despondency.“Thus alone will they be worthy of the fighting men who, in the air, on the sea and on the land, have already met the enemy without any sense of being outmatched in martial qualities.”