BETTER WAR OUTLOOK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 February 1941, Page 5

BETTER WAR OUTLOOK

; MR WINSTON CHURCHILL BROADCASTS Staunch Courage of British People j 1 ; LAND AND SEA VICTORIES IN MEDITERRANEAN NEED OF AMERICAN MATERIAL AID In a review of the war, broadcast by the 8.8. C., the British Prime Minister, Mr. Winston Churchill, said five months had passed since he last broadcast to the British nation and Empire. Events during' these months had turned out far better than most of them had hoped. Britain had stood her ground against { the enemy. After the heavy defeat of the German air force by British fighters in August and September, Hitler did not dare to attempt an invasion of the British Isles although he had every means to do so and had made vast preparations. He sought then to break the spirit of the British nation by bombing I London and afterwards Britain's great cities but this had only • i made the resolve of the people greater than ever before. All through the dark winter months the enemy had been able to “I .. drop three or four tons of bombs upon Britain for every bomb Britain could send to Germany in return. Britain was arrangi ing, however that presently this would rather be the other way i round. JI Mr. Churchill went on to pay a tribute to the spirit and devotion of the people and all concerned in the defence of the British Isles. More than two-thirds of the winter, he said, had now gone and so far there had been no serious epidemics, which spoke well for the work of the medical and sanitation officers, while there were fewer prisoners in the country’s gaols than in years of peace.

MUSSOLINI IN TROUBLE i Referring to Italy, Mr Churchill saic ‘one of the two dictators, the cold- : blooded, black-hearted Italian, wht had stabbed fallen France in the back : had got himself into trouble. Without , the slightest provocation, he had at- ! lacked Greece and had been hurled } back again, in a maimer which revived the glories o' i ncient Greece While ! Mus.-olmi was writhing and smarting 1 from the Greek lash m Albania, Genj oral Wavell had won a series of vic- ; lories which had broken Italian milii tary power in Africa with tremendous Mr Churchill referred to the brilliance of the successes iichieved by General Wavell and other British leaders in Libya, in which the whole ItaEan army, reported to exceed 150,000 men. had bee:; captured or destroyed and tiie entire province of Cyrenaica, nearly as big as England and Wales, had been conquered. Egypt ami the Suez C.in.d were safe and Benghazi, a stza’vgic point high ron-eqiictn v to the wh“le ef the war •1 the Eastern Medib-rram ~n was m >4 r« » • k!• p 1 s nil-: NAW AND AIR FORCE ; The success achieved would not have bee.’’, possible Without the co- ’ opera'u.l’. of the Air Force and the' N...\y Only that morning the Bntish Fleet had entered tile Gulf of Genoa anti 'otimburdvd m .• shattering manner the naval l-.t-e . from which a large ! German ex; < e!.might soon have ■ailed to .itt.ua (hiv.-i.d Wavell from >M;m: and Tunisia Mr Churchill pr <<•<•< d‘ ‘i t" :</<•:- ’<> the suet essful i>v pr.' Ui z < “l ■ > . ....... . . ; !■ dc.d w:!b the attiVmtcil State. Mr Church- .!! •■<■<! 'ln- visits to Britain < f >< •: ■, !I ;>k!: ■ I*' - d'-n' it ' .1* * t-, 1 j d'd of Mr Wt”!'.’ (’'(•)] Willi'ir H<* v» <*■>•'.*. tlt.il

! United States the truth. More than that, he did not ask. What of the i more serious and more dangerous asI. pects of the war? he asked. What new o; deviltry was Hitler planning? The t war, he believed, would enter on a t phase of greater violence. Hitler had . i created a frightful internal convulsion [j! in Rumania and a considerable GerI : man army was in Rumania and others L .: were already jxmetrating Bulgarin, ij I Surely Bulgaria must be alive to the . ! dangers of the situation and lie hoped . i she was not going to make the same . mistake as others had made. In the s : Central Mediterranean the Italian ! Quisling Mussolini and the French . Quisling Laval were battling in their > different ways to make their countries . , into doormats tor Hitler and his new > | order, ■ Referring to the recent action in the . Mediterranean between the Navy and ■ German dive-bombers. .Mr Churchill said out <'f 150 German dive-bombers sent to Italy, up to 90 had been destroyed in two or three days The air-cr.<ft-ciirrier Illustrious had been severely damaged, but after al! tteccss.ii-. repairs had been carried out at Malta she had steamed at 23 knots to Alexandria. SHIPPING & WAR MATERIAL Making j articular reference to the assistance given by the United States. .Mr Churchill said Britain did not need a great army, but war equipment of all kinds P.ritam would require a greater mass of .-.hipping in 1942—-far more than could build hciself to maintain and augment the w,.r effort both in tile west and the cist and Hitler would try to reduce tile supply <,f American equipment. Mr Churchill said lie had confidence in the N'ax y ..nd the mrer ft < f the Coastal Comma!!:!. He repeated a warning of a pl ■ ■ :li.!;tv <■' a German invasion and pointed . lit tli.it Whatever iiaj pcmM Hitler must destroy Great >■; i:: i : to win th<* war "G:v<Bl the tools" laid Mr Churchill. i v. ill finish the job '