VIGOROUS ACTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 May 1943, Page 4

VIGOROUS ACTION

IN ALL WAR THEATRES PROMISED BY MR CHURCHILL. IN ADDRESS TO AMERICAN CONGRESS. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.0 a.m.) RUGBY, May 19. A promise of British co-operation in “an unflinching and relentless waging of war against Japan,” a premise of an intensified air assault against Axis industry, a revelation cf recent record sinkings of Üboats, a warm tribute to the Russian armies holding 190 German and 28 sattelite divisions, a prediction that Hitler would make a third desperate throw against Russia and the importance of bringing immediate and effective aid to China were notable points in Mr Churchill’s address to both Houses of the United States Congress. Dealing with the Far East, Mr Churchill described the operations in the Malay Peninsula and Singapore as the greatest, or at any rate the largest military disaster in British history, and said amid loud applause: “All this has to be retrieved, all this and much else has to be repaid.” This led him to a forthright declaration regarding Japan: “Let no one suggest that* we British have not at least as great an interest as the United States in an unflinching and relentless waging of war against Japan.” A rear of cheering interrupted Mr Churchill, who continued: ..“And aiding Australia and New Zealand to defend themselves against a Japanese invasion.” This, he said, seemed far more threatening at the time of Singapore than it did now. A notable part in the war against Japan must be played by the armies, air and naval forces now marshalled by Britain on the eastern frontiers of India. In this quarter lay one means of aiding hardpressed and, long-tormented China. Referring to the presence of FieldMarshal Wavell and the other two commanders-in-chief from India. Mr Churchill added drily: “They have not travelled all this way simply to concern themselves about improving the health and happiness of the Mikado.” The Prime Minister said it had been agreed that joint air power should be brought to bear on Japan at the earliest possible moment. GREAT ARMIES IN INDIA. “You may be sure,” the Prime Minister continued, “that if all that were necessary was for an order to be given to the great armies standing ready in India to march towards the Rising Sun and open the Burma Road, that order would be given this afternoon. The matter is, however, more complicated, and all movements and infiltrations of troops into the mountains and jungles of north-east Burma are strictly .governed by the science of logistics, but I repudiate the slightest suspicion that’ We would hold anything back that could be usefully employed, or that I and the Government I represent are not resolved to employ every man, gun and aeroplane that can be used in this business.” He recalled that in his January conference with President Roosevelt, the United States had undertaken the main responsibility of prosecuting the war against Japan, while Britain took the main burden on the Atlantic. Britain, he said, had willingly ,done her full share of sea work in the dangerous waters of the Mediterranean and in Arctic convoys to Russia and had sustained, since the Alliance began, more than double' the losses of merchant tonnage that had fallen upon the United States. On the other hand, the prodigious output of new ships from the United States had for six months past overtaken and now far surpassed the losses of both the Allies. Mr Churchill mentioned that our killings of U-boats had for this year greatly exceeded all previous experience and that the last three months and particularly the last three weeks, had yielded record results. This was to some extent due to the larger number of U-boats, but also to a vast improvement in the severity and power of measures against them and the new devices continually employed. THE AIR OFFENSIVE.

Mr Churchill said the Allied air offensive in Europe would continue ceaselessly, with ever-increasing weight, until the German and Italian people abandoned the world-destroyed and monstrous tyrannies they had incubated and reared in their midst. He spoke of the “unparalleled devastation” to which German war industry, particularly in the Ruhr, was being reduced, and here he revealed that 19 Lancasters had taken part in the destruction of the great dams, with a loss of eight.