POWERFUL BOW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 May 1942, Page 4

POWERFUL BOW

BRITISH HOME GUARD WELL ABLE TO DESTROY ENEMY IN AIRBORNE OR OTHER INVASION. MR CHURCHILL'S CONFIDENT DECLARATION. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.15 a.m.) RUGBY, May 12. At an inspection of the Palace of Westminster Company of the Home Guard, the Prime Minister (Mr Churchill) said: “I know you will not expect me to say I look forward to the occasion when your services; will be required, because if such an occasion arose it would certainly expose the Government to serious criticism on other grounds, but should it ever arise 1 am certain we can destroy any enemy who comes into our midst, and that in itself is an additional deterrent against an attempt to attack this famous and long inviolate island. Mr Churchill revealed that Britain's Home Guard was nearly a million and three-quarters strong, and said the work these men were doing was of great value to the country. When France fell out of the war, he continued, Britain was left under the threat of invasion, while destitute of an army. While the army was being reorganised, the Home Guard sprang into existence and now a million and threequarter men had been trained in the use of arms and were accustomed readily and rapidly to come together at any point, their minds fixed on the possibility of contact with the enemy. The Home Guard was an invaluable addition to the Armed Forces and an essential part of the effective defence of Britain. Its value was increased by the fact that airborne invasion became more and more possible in modern warfare. In 1940, if the enemy had descended from the sky, he would have found only little groups of men with shotguns. Now, wherever he attemped to place a foot, he would be attacked by resolute and determined men ready to put him to death or compel his immediate surrender. “To invade this island by air,” said Mr Churchill, “is to descend into a hornets’ nest and there is no part of that nest where the stings are more ready and effective and their power to injure more remarkable than here in the ancient Palace of Westminster, where, rifle in one hand and sometimes speech notes in the other, we conduct the essential work of the Mother of Parliaments and make it clear that neither bombardment nor invasion can prevent our institutions functioning steadily and unbrokenly throughout the storms of war.”