NO RELAXATION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 August 1940, Page 5

NO RELAXATION

IN BRITISH VIGILANCE AGAINST NAZI ATTEMPTS AT INVASION. MR CHURCHILL’S POINTED WARNING. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, August 3. The following statement was I made from No. 10 Downing Street: | “The Prime Minister wishes it to be known that the possibility of German attempts at invasion has by no means passed away. “The fact that the Germans are now putting about rumours that, they do I not intend to make an invasion should be regarded with the double dose of suspicion which attaches to all their utterances. “Our sense of growing strength and preparedness must not lead to the slightest relaxation of vigilance or moral alertness.” MIDGET NAVY GUARDING INLAND LAKES AND RIVERS. SOME SURPRISES FOR HITLER. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON. August 3. A correspondent who has been permitted to inspect coastal defences refers to a “Tom Thumb” or "vest pocket” nayy, consisting of high-powered and heavily-armed speed-boats that may seek to land troops on remote stretches of inland lakes and rivers. The commander of a flotilla said: “We have got surprises for Hitler. They may not be magnetic mines but something just as good. Wc are prepared for his seaplanes night and day.” Five thousand members of the Home Guard attend Bisley, the world-famed competition range, every weekend for rifle instruction. All National Rifle Association ranges throughout the country are similarly occupied. The War Secretary, Mr Eden, yesterday visited Army units in the Southern Command, including a battalion of the King’s Royal Rifles, in which he served during the Great War. CHANGED TONE IN ENEMY PROPAGANDA. RETREAT FROM RECENT BOASTS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. August 2. To British students of Nazi propaganda, the recent remarkable turnabout in the inspired utterances in Germany and their echoes in Italy on the subject of the war on Britain, is not seriously considered as an indication of any change in the military plans, but it may signify'a recognition by the Nazi officials of a need to temporise with the disappointment at home and growing scepticism abroad. The contrast between the latest pronouncements of Dr Ley, Signor Gayda and others, and those of some weeks back, is certainly instructive. Ley, writing in the “Angriff,” now says: “National Socialists know that the fight against England will be hard, and that England will defend herself obstinately with all her energy. England's power is great, and the conflict will be difficult.” But not so very long ago he told a camp meeting in the Siegfried Line that “England's nervousness has already reached a state of hysteria,” and reliable reports at the end of last March attributed to him an intimation that he was planning “strength-through-joy” cruises for German workers to the most popular resorts on the south coast of England for the latter months of this summer. A few days ago Gayda stated in the “Giornale d’ltalia” that “The war against England cannot be of a lightning nature or as spectacular as that against France, but it must consist of hammering at and wearing down all the national and imperial forces supporting the British resistance.” As recently as July 15, however. Gayda was writing, “The preparations for the final attack against England will be completed in a very few days, and Britain will have to settle its account. It will have to choose between submission to the renovating and restorating forces of Europe and an extremely violent war in which inexorable destruction and the fateful and precipituous step toward final overthrow will be measured not by the years or the weeks of which Mr Churchill spoke but days and hours.” Gayda may plead that he had the fullest authorisation for his boastfulness from Berlin, for the Deutschlandsender radio on July 1 had told German listeners that “in a few weeks England will lie on the ground as broken as France is now.” The German wireless now claims that the much-advertised attacks began five weeks ago, “Germany struck and is striking daily, and hourly,” it declares. “Each day has seen new triumphs of the German submarines, successful attacks by bombers and dive-bombers, and successful battle by our fighters over the Channel and the English coasts.”

“VICTORIES ON PAPER.” It must, indeed, be admitted that Germany is achieving remarkable victories on paper —and the recent wild extravagance of the German communiques becomes understandable so long as the Germans are asked to believe that Britain is already being beaten to her knees. The operations against shipping provide daily examples of the gross exaggeration. On Thursday the Nazi Propaganda Ministry claimed that Germany had sunk one and a quarter million'tons of British shipping in the past five weeks. Actually in the first four of the five weeks in Question Germany sank a total of 176,750 tons of British shipping. The figures for the fifth week have not yet been published by the Admiralty, but on this reckoning Germany must have sunk over a million tons in the fifth week alone, and such an astronomical claim does little credit to the intelligence of the hearers whom Germany is so desperately anxious to impress.