EMPIRE WAR EFFORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 November 1940, Page 6

EMPIRE WAR EFFORT

MR CHURCHILL ON DEMANDS TO BE MET Britain To Do AH She Can For Greece NEED OF COPING WITH U-BOAT CAMPAIGN HEAVY ADDITIONAL BURDEN IMPOSED BY IRELAND (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.5'2 a.in.) RUGBY, November 5. The Prime Minister (Mr Churchill) was followed with the closest attention when dealing', in his statement in the House of Commons, with the Mediterranean and with aid to Greece. He said: “We have already established a naval and air base in Crete, which will enable us sensibly to extend the activities and radius of the Navy and Air Force. We have begun bombing attacks on military objectives in cities and bases in the South of Italy. That will continue on an ever-growing scale. I would also say that forces are in movement with a desire to help Greece to the utmost of our capacity, having regard to our other obligations. I hope I shall not be asked to give any other account of such measures as, we are able to take. If I were to set them too high, I should raise false hopes; if I set them too low, I might cause undue despondency. If I said only what they were, that would be exactly what the enemy would like to know. We shall do what we can. That is all I cam say/’

FACING NEW CALL

Oui’ new task confronting us with tiie attempted invasion of Greece must be approached .with a strong sense of the responsibility resting on the British Government. One gigantic army is across the Channel. There is another very powerful army on the Libyan frontier. As to the circumstance of the Italian movement against Greece, Mr Churchill emphasised the care with which the British Government had refrained from any action likely to impose upon the Greeks the enmity of the criminal dictators, and that for their part the Greeks had maintained so strict a neutrality that the British Government was unacquainted with'their intentions and dispositions. “The Greek King, his Government and people havd resolved to fight for their life and honour,” said Mr Churchill. “France and Britain guaranteed to go to the aid of Greece if she were the victim of unprovoked aggression. It was a joint agreement, but unhappily the Vichy Government is engaged at this moment in such loyal collaboration with Hitler in his scheme of establishing a so-called new order in Europe that at any rate the Vichy Government is no longer in a position to play an effective part in the task France had accepted.” EIRE & THE U=BOATS The Premier had previously dealt with air attacks, the submarine menace and the threatened invasion of Britain. He also described the position in the Mediterranean resulting from the Italian entry into the war and the defection of France. Dealing with the intensified U-boat campaign, Mr Churchill observed that the dangers to seaborne trade were formidable, and if neglected would touch the life of the State. He said that heavier U-boat attacks must be expected next year, and although preparations of all kinds were being made to meet them, a very long view had to be ! taken. “We have to think about 1943 and 1944 and of tonnage programmes' and what we shall have to move across I the oceans then,” he said. The time available must be used to produce the greatest volume of food in Britain in order “to liberate the Navy and merchant shipping which will certainly be required in those years , if the enemy | has not surrendered or collapsed.” I

In the meanwhile, the recent sinkings of vessels in the Atlantic approaches were more serious than air raids.

“The ifact that we cannot use the south and west coasts of Ireland, and thus protect the trade by which Ireland as well as Britain lives, is a most heavy and strenuous burden and one which should never have been placed on our shoulders,” Mr Churchill declared.

In addition, the Prime Minister said, British flotilla strength was at its lowest, because the invasion threat had to be met as well as the maintenance of great forces in the Mediterranean. The provision of escorts was also necessary for the protection of innumerable convoys. A GIGANTIC TASK ' “The Government,” Mr Churchill continued, “have imposed upon the Navy a gigantic task. However this is perhaps passing. Fifty American destroyers are rapidly coming into service just when they are most needed, and the main flow of construction started at the outbreak of war is now coming along. “Britain has nearly as much shipping tonnage as she had at the beginning of the war and has a great deal of neutral shipping which traded to Britain before the war and is now under British control.”

The Premier explained that although shipping tonnage had not appreciably diminished, shipping was not so fruitful as in peace time, because of lengthened and indirect voyages. Delays in marshalling convoys and congestion at ports were inevitable. “It would not be wise,” he said, "to suppose that a great stringency has not been brought about, although the actual volume of shipping remains practically undiminished.” The Admiralty and Ministry of Shipping were asking for intense efforts to cope with the situation and he had no doubt that a way through the difficulties would be made. U-boat hunting, Mr Churchill said, was still having success and he referred to the sinking of U-boats within the last two or three days, one being the submarine which sank the Empress of Britain. Though he agreed that the danger from U-boats had been diminished by a combination of winter weather and the newly-increased destroyer strength, as well as by the proof by the R.A.F. that they are “masters of our own air,” it would be a mistake to presume that the danger had passed away or that it would not recur in a more acute or other form.

A mighty army, Mr Churchill continued, crouches on the coast of the North Sea. ' There are substantial masses of shipping in the harbours on the western seaboard of Europe, from North Cape.” THE EMPIRE ARMY Offering a word or two about the British Army, the Premier said: “We are engaged in forming and training a very strong Army and the like is being done in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Although the sea and air will be the main elements in the war efforts of the British Empire, we must have a strong Army, well equipped, well armed, well trained, well organised and capable of intervening. as the war proceeds, in the liberation of one or other of the many countries yearning to free themselves from the odious Nazi yoke." REGAINING THE INITIATIVE “Without such a force, tempered and sharpened with power which gives it a wide choice of action, the war might be prolonged." said Mr Churchill. “It might even drift towards a disastrous stalemate.” This winter, he continued, the Army had got to train itself and perfect its fighting men in all the arts and manoeuvres of war, so that Britain might be in a position to regain the initiative. He made it clear, moreover, that during all the menace of invasion, when troops were needed so badly, they had never failed to reinforce the British armies in Egypt almost to the limits of shipping capacity, and not only with men, but with precious weapons. Scores of thousands of troops had left Britain month by month, or had been drawn from other parts of the Empire for the Middle East. Recalling what the loss of France had meant in this area, Mr Churchill said: “I am thankful to be able to reassure the House that the balance of forces on the frontiers of Egypt and the Sudan is far less unfavourable than at the time of the French collapse. There has not yet been a serious collision with the Italian forces, but they had every reason io be content with the results of skirmishes and forays on the ground and in the air. The Italian published casualties for the fighting in Libya amounted to 800 killed, 1,700 wounded and 860 missing. British casualties in the same time were 66 killed, 68 wounded and 36 missing. The Fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean had also been continually strengthened, and he stressed its ! readiness and desire at any time to engage the Italian Navy in a general action.

“The power of the British Fleet in the Eastern Mediterranean goes a long way to restore the situation created by the collapse of France and is a great guarantee to our friends and allies in Turkey of the unweakening power of Great Britain on the seas,” the Primo Minister added.

The 8.8. C. reports Mr Churchill as stating that a steady stream of reinforcements, almost to the limits of shipping capacity, had been sent to the Middle East. Scores of thousands of men and much precious equipment had been sent and the balance of forces in the Middle East was now much less unfavourable to Britain than at the time of the French collapse. In such fighting as ha'ti occurred, the Italians had suffered losses in the ration of twenty to one —a good augury for the greater battles that undoubtedly would develop, if not in the winter in the. spring. The British fleet in the Mediterranean had been strengthened ceaselessly and it was ready at any time for a general engagement with the Italian fleet.

Mr Lees Smith and other speakers who followed Mr Churchill spoke of the extent to which British losses of ships and men were increased, by the exclusion of British naval and air forces from bases on the west coast of Ireland —a country which but for the British Navy would have suffered the fate of Holland and Denmark.