WORLD SCENE OF WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 December 1941, Page 3

WORLD SCENE OF WAR

SURVEYED BY BRITISH PREMIER

In Address to Members of ILS.A. Congress MAGNITUDE OF TASK IN HAND EMPHASISED TIME FORTUNATELY GAINED FOR NECESSARY ' L PREPARATION LONDON, December 26. A survey of the world scene of war was made by the British Prime Minister, Mr Winston Churchill, in an address to the members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives at Washington. Observing that the United States had been attacked and set upon by the three most powerful dictator States, which included the greatest military power in Europe and the greatest military power in Asia, Mr Churchill said the forces ranged against the Allies were enormous, bitter and ruthless. The Axis had a vast accumulation of war weapons of all kinds and would stop at nothing as far as violence and treachery were concerned. The resources of the Allies were far greater, but only a portion of them were as yet mobilised and developed. Both Britain and the United States, he said, had much to learn of i the cruel art of war. They had, therefore, without doubt, a time of tribulation before them, with many disappointments and unpleasant surprises.

TEACHING PROVED FALSE

For the best part of 20 years, said Mr Churchill, the youth of Great Britain and America had been taught that war was evil—-and it was—and that it would never come again. That had been proved to be false. For the best part of 20 years the youth of Germany, Italy and Japan had been taught that there was no nobler duty for citizens than to fight. That position placed the peace-loving nations at a disadvantage which took time to overcome and correct. Great Britain and the Empire, he said, had been fortunate in the time that had been granted them. If Germany had started an invasion of the British Isles after the French collapse. in Juno, 1940, and if Japan had declared war on the British Empire and the United States at about the same time, no one could say what the result might have been.

GREAT PROGRESS MADE Now, at the end of December, 1941, their transition from easy-going peace to a total war effort had made very great progress. The great flow of munitions in Britain had already begun and immense strides had been made in the conversion of American industries to military purposes. Orders being given every day would, in a year or 18 months, produce results in war supplies beyond anything that could be produced by the Axis forces. Nothing should be allowed to keep back that total war effort and if that were done unremittingly, it was reasonable to hope that by the end of 1942 the Allies would be quite definitely in a better position than they were in now, and that in the year 1943 they would be able to assume the initiative upon an ample scale. They were masters of their fate by the task set before them and so long as they had faith in their cause and an unconquerable will power their purpose would not be denied them. !:, :.J

MIGHTY BLOWS STRUCK Mighty strokes had already been dealt against the enemy, said Mr Churchill, by the glorious defence of the Russian army and people, who had inflicted upon the Nazi tyrants wounds which were bitter and deep and would fester and inflame not only in the Nazi body but in the Nazi mind. Great Britain had inflicted great damage on Nazi industry. Britain’s armies' of the East, which were so weak and ill-equipped at the moment of the French defection, were now in control from Teheran to Benghazi and to the sources of the Nile. A very considerable battle had been proceeding in Libya for the past six weeks. They had never been able to bring a numerically superior force to bear on the enemy. For the first time, however, they had fought the enemy with equal weapons. The armed forces of the enemy in Cyrenaica were' about 150,000, one-third of them Germans. General Auchinleck had set out to destroy totally the armed forces of the enemy. Mr Churchill said he had every reason to believe that this aim would be fully accomplished. With proper weapons and proper organisation they would be able to beat the life out of the savage Nazi hordes.

FAR EASTERN SITUATION Referring to the Far Eastern situation, Mr Churchill said people had asked him why there were not ample supplies of aircraft and weapons of all kinds in Malaya. He could only point to the victory which General Auchinleck had gained in Libya. Had they diverted and dispersed their greatlygrowing resources between Libya and Malaya they would have been found wanting in both theatres. If America’s strength in the Pacific were found to be disappointing, it was due to no small extent to the help she had given in. keeping open the vital life-line

across the Atlantic to Britain. Everything depended on that life-line. It was difficult to reconcile Japans action with prudence and sanity.| What kind of people did they think the Allies were? The Allies would never cease to prosecute the war until the Japanese had learnt a lesson that they and the world would never forget. An adequate organisation should be set up, said Mr Churchill, to make sure that a pestilence could be controlled before it struck and ranged throughout the entire earth. With hope and faith, the British and American peoples walked together for their own safety and for the goodwill of all, in majesty, in justice and in power.