WHAT BRITAIN NEEDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 July 1941, Page 6

WHAT BRITAIN NEEDS

UNITED STATES WILL SUPPLY

National Determination io Destroy Hitlerism

MR HARRY HOPKINS BROADCASTS ON HIS MISSION

BRIDGE THAT SPANS THE ATLANTIC

(British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.4 b a.m.) RUGBY, July 27

Mr Harry Hopkins, President Roosevelt’s personal representative and supervisor of the Lease or Lend programme, m a broadcast tonight, said: “I arrived here, from America a week ago on business. My business is the same as that or every ether American, from the President to the man who drives a rivet or turns a lathe in an aeroplane factory in Los 80 or Buffalo—that business is safeguarding our heritage ci ireedom of thought and action. Right now, Hitler is seriously threatening this heritage of ours and yours. I did not come from America alone. I came in a bomber plane and with me were twenty other bombers made in America. These aeroplanes tonight may be dropping bombs on. Brest, Hamburg or Berlin, helping to safeguard our common heritage. I have come here as the representative of the President of the United states. This hatred for the things Hitler stands for is a hatred of our own people against tyranny. The people of my country feel thar this world would not be worth living in if the forces of Nazi power were to prevail and the democracies of the world to crumble under their fierce but futile assault.

TWO NAVIES—ONE OBJECT j “The President, speaking for the people of the United States, is tendering Britain more than lip sei vice. Even now as I speak, grey destroyers bearing the American flag are plunging their bows into the waters of the North Atlantic. Once upon a time this mighty ocean separated us. Now it joins us. Tonight British and American warships are patrolling parallel lanes, with only one object in view—to guard the world’s life-line. I have been with the President when messages came to him telling of the bombing of workers’ flats in the East End of London. I was with him when the news first came of the tragic bombing of Coventry and later of Plymouth. I heard the words which came, not from his lips but from his heart. I watched the stern development of his determination to defeat Hitler. The President is at one with your Prime Minister in his determination to break the ruthless power of that sinful psysopathic of Berlin. The President asked me to come over here. My instructions from him were: ‘Find out if the material we are sending Britain is arriving. Find out if it is what Britain wants. Let me know if there is anything more Britain needs.’ This, is my mission. I have found out the things he asked me to find out. I have learned that most of the war material America has shipped to this island has arrived here—although I know only too well of some precious cargoes that have gone to the bottom of the sea. RETURNING TO REPORT “I have learned from your Cabinet Ministers what England needs now and I am returning to America to report this to the President. I have found out that there are certain things you need to fight this war for the democracies. I am confident that America can supply them. We in America may be three thousand miles away, but today the Atlantic ocean is merely a channel. A bridge of friendship spans it—a bridge of sympathy and admiration extends from Washington to London, and although perhaps you cannot see this bridge, it is so strong that all the power of darkness and

Nazi terrorism cannot destroy it. Your Prime Minister and my President are three thousand miles apart, but we no longer measure distance in miles. After all, the Hun is only twenty-one miles from Dover, yet he and his pagan way of life are 2,000 years away from Dover. I speak to you tonight as an American deeply interested in the welfare of his country and in the preservation of our democratic form of government. Like most Americans, I feel that our way of life and our country are threatened by Hitler. Like most Americans, I feel that your fight is a fight for freedom in the world and that it must not and will not fail. J would like to talk to you about the Bill which is popularly known as the Lend or Lease Bill.” FROM CHEERS TO ACTION Mr Hopkins continued: “For a while you received verbal messages of cheei' and good hope. My country was in the position of a football fan who yelled encouragement from the stands. That was not good enough. President Roosevelt realised this. He knew that sympathy is humane but that Flying Fortresses could drop more bombs. He knew that admiration is pleasing, but that an American destroyer could drop depth charges. He knew that speeches by himself and his Cabinet Ministers' might get applause in Britain, but he knew, too, that machine tools, guns and ammunition made in America and delivered here would be much more effective than words. Tho President and Congress knew this and the Lease or Lend Bill was the answer. This Bill put our sympathies and our admiration into tangible form. The Lease or Lend Bill is a weapon against a tyrant—against a man who would enslave our democracies. Until now the people of Britain have not been told all the details of just what help America has given you. Publication of the exact amount of material which has already arrived here might give valuable information to the enemy and might jeopardise the life-line stretching from Canda and the United States to Britain. Now that life-line is much stronger. No enemy action can stop the ceaseless tide of ships coming here daily, this time laden with something more substantial than hope and sympathy.”