WARM WELCOME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 December 1941, Page 4

WARM WELCOME

GIVEN TO MR CHURCHILL IN WASHINGTON LISTENERS IN BRITAIN THRILLED. • DEMONSTRATION OF UNITED PURPOSE. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.10 a.m.) RUGBY, December 26. Listeners throughout Britain have been thrilled, not only by the inspiring message delivered by Mr Churchill to the joint session in Washington of the Senate and House of Representatives, but also by the warmth of the welcome he was given. The cheers which greeted him throughout his speech are felt here to demonstrate that friendship of the two peoples which guarantees complete sympathy, understanding and support of the joint struggle. After a reference to his American forbears, Mr Churchill said: “I have been in full harmony all my life with the tides which flowed on both sides of the Atlantic against privilege, and monopoly, and I have steered confidently towards the Gettysburg ideal of government of the people by the people. In my country, as in yours, public men are proud to be servants of the State and would be ashamed to be its masters. On any .day, if they thought'the people wanted it, the House of Commons, could, on a simple vote, rfemove me from office, but I am not worrying about it at all. As a matter of fact I am assured they will approve very highly my journey here, for which I obtained the King's permission, to meet President Roosevelt and arrange with him for all that mapping out of our military plans, and for all those intimate meetings of high officers of the Services in both countries, that are indispensable for the prosecution of the war. I would . like to say first of all how much I have been encouraged by the breadth- of view and sense of proportion that I have found in all the quarters over here to which I have had access. Anyone who did not understand the size and solidarity of the United States might be expected to find an excited, disturbed dfid selfcentred atmosphere, with- all minds fixed unon the startling and painful buffets of sudden, war as they hit America. After all, the United States has been attacked and set upon by three of the most powerful armed dictator States and a quarrel has opened that can only 1 end in their overthrow or yours.

AMERICAN FORTITUDE. “Here in Washington, in these memorable days, I have found Olympian fortitude which, far from being based upon complacency has only masked an inflexible purpose and is proof of a sure will and confidence in the final outcome. We in Britain had the same feeling in our darkest days. We too were sure that in the end all would be well. You do not underrate the severity of the ordeal to which you and we will still be subjected. The forces ranged against us are enormous. There are ruthless and wicked men and factions who have launched their people on the path of war and conquest. They know they will be called ; to a terrible account if they cannot beat down by force the peoples they have assaulted. They will stop at nothing. They have a vast accumulation of war weapons of all kinds and highly trained armies, navies and air services. They will stop, at nothing that violence and treachery can suggest. It is true that on our side resources in manpower and material are far greater than theirs, but only a portion of you are mobilised and developed, and we both of us have much to learn of the cruel art of war.” THE PROSPECT VIEWED. Mr Churchill added that, provided every effort were made and nothing kept back and the whole manpower, brainpower, virility, valour and virtue of the English-speaking world, with all its galaxy of loyal friends, were associated in a common effort, it was reasonable to hope that the end of 1942 would see us in a definitely better position than now, and that 1943 would enable us to assume the initiative upon an ample scale. “I am sure -this day,” he said, “not that we are masters of our fate, but that the task which has been set us is not above bur strength. Its pangs and toils are not beyond our endurance. As long as we have faith in our cause and an unconquerable will power, salvation will not be denied us. Not all tidings will be evil. Mighty strokes have already been dealt against the enemy. The glorious defence by the Russian armies and" people has inflicted defeats upon the Nazi tyranny. The boastful Mussolini has crumpled and is already stripped of his African empire. For many months we have devoted ourselves to preparing an offensive in Libya. For the first time we have fought the enemy with equal weapons. For the first time we have made them feel the sharp edge of those tools with which they enslaved Europe. General Auchinleck set out totally to destroy an enemy force of 150,000. I have every reason to believe his aim will be accomplished. “Do we not owe it to ourselves and our children, and to tormented mankind,” said Mt Churchill, “to see that, these catastrophes do not engulf us a third time? Five or six years ago it, would have been easy, without bloodshed, for the United States and Britain to have insisted on the fulfilment o'Z disarmament. The chance has departed. Prodigious hammer strokes ha Ye been needed to bring us together today. He must indeed be a blind soul who cannot see some great purpose being worked out here below, for which reason we have the honour to be faithful servants. It is not given to us to peer into the future. Yet in days to come the British and American peoples will, for their own safety, and for the good of all, walk together in majesty, justice and peace.”