BRITISH RESOLVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 July 1940, Page 6

BRITISH RESOLVE

DARK CURSE OF HITLER WILL BE LIFTED IF ALL STRIVE IN FAITH AND DUTY. MR WINSTON CHURCHILL’S SPEECH. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.35 a.m.) LONDON, July 14. Broadcasting, the Prime Minister (Mr Winston Churchill) said the transfer of the French Navy to Germany would have endangered Britain and the United States. The melancholy task of putting out of action the French Navy for the duration of the war had now been completed. The unfinished warship Jean Bart was still in a Moroccan port and a number of other warships were at various French ports throughout the world, but these were not in a condition or of such a character as to derange our preponderance of naval power. Mr Churchill added: “We shall not seek terms or tolerate a parley. We may show mercy, but we shall ask for ■ none. As long as the pathway to victory is unimpeded, we are ready to discharge such offices of goodwill towards the French Government as are possible and foster trade with those parts of the French Empire maintaining their freedom.” Any plan Hitler had made two months ago must be entirely recast in order to meet our new position, Mr Churchill declared. We must prepare, not only for the summer, but for the winter, not only for 1941, but for 1942, “when the war will, I trust, take a different form from the defensive in which we have hitherto been bound. “All goes to show that the war will belong and hard and nobody can tell where it will spread. One thing is certain—the peoples of Europe will not be ruled for long by the Nazi Gestapo, nor will the world yield itself to Hitler’s gospel of hatred and domination. We are fighting by ourselves alone, but we are not fighting for ourselves alone. Here in this strong city of refuge, in which are enshrined the title deeds of human progress, 4 here girt about by seas and oceans, where the Navy reigns, shielded from above by the staunch devotion of our airmen, we await undismayed the impending assault. Perhaps it will come tonight, perhaps next week, perhaps never. We must show ourselves capable of meeting a sudden and violent shock or a prolonged vigil.” “I can easily understand,” Mr Churchill continued, “how sympathetic onlookers across the Atlantic, or anxious friends in yet unravaged countries of Europe who cannot measure our resources or resolve, may have had a fear for our survival, when they saw so many States and kingdoms torn to pieces in a few weeks or days by the monstrous forces of the Nazi war machine, but Hitler has not yet been withstood by a great nation with a will-power equal to his own. We have a million and a half men under arms. Every week in June and July their organisation, defences and striking power have advanced by leaps and bounds. “We shall defend every village, every town and every city. We had rather see London in ashes and ruins than tamely and abjectly enslaved. After ten months of unlimited submarine and air attacks against our commerce, our food reserves are higher than ever and there is a substantially larger tonnage under our mercantile flag than before the war. This is a war of the unknown warrior, but let all strive without failing in faith and duty and the dark curse of Hitler will be lifted from our age.”