IN LONDON AGAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 June 1943, Page 3

IN LONDON AGAIN

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER

NORTH AFRICA VISITED

ON HIS HOMEWARD JOURNEY FROM WASHINGTON

HEAVY BLOWS AT AXIS IN NEAR

PROSPECT.

(Bv Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, June 6.

Mr Churchill has returned to London and is hard at work with Cabinet colleagues and service chiefs after —it is now officially disclosed —he had made a visit to Gibraltar and North Africa.

Mr Churchill Hew to Gibraltar after the Washington conference, and then flew on to Algiers and Tunis. Participating with him in conferences in North Africa were the Chief of the United States Army General Staff, General Marshal, and the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Eden.

A communique which has been issued from the Allied North-west African headquaters states that the purpose of the visit was to work out the details for striking the heaviest possible blow at the Axis.

It is announced from No. 10 Downing Street that Mr. Churchill will make a short statement in the House of Commons on the first sitting day. ' Mr Churchill received a warm welcome from the few persons who saw him returning this morning. After a short rest he attended a meeting of the Cabinet. A commentator, broadcasting from Algiers, stated that Mr Churchill's talks in North Africa were a continuation of the Washington meetings, and were with the Allied land, naval and air chiefs in the Mediterranean area. The commentator said that the secrecy surrounding Mr Churchill’s movements in North Africa was perfect. For some time he was in Algiers, and then he Hew into Tunisia, where he flew over much of the battlefields. TRIUMPHANT TOUR. He motored many miles to visit different units, and between Tunis and Grombalia he drove along a road which was lined with troops for 15 miles. He told a gathering of airmen that he had cctne with a message of gratitude from their fellow countrymen. He also said that the results of the North African campaign meant a shortening of the war and a long step toward peace, home and honour. The climax of Mr Churchill's triumphal tour came at Chrthage, ( where thousands of British soldiers and airmen heard him offer the thanks and congratulations of the people of Britain to the American, British and French forces for driving the Axis out of Africa. Everywhere he went Mr Churchill was greeted with great enthusiasm. AGREEMENT ON WAR PLANS. The Press Association's Parliamentary correspondent says that Mr Churchill may be able to inform the House of Commons that full agreement had been reached on the future conduct of the war, including assumption of the offensive in the Far East, where the operations are likely to run concurrently with the European war rather than consecutively.

Soon after his return Mr Churchill began consultations with his Cabinet colleagues and the service chiefs. The correspondent understands that because of important decisions which had to be made in Tunis after the Washington conferences, Mr Churchill felt that a second and senior member of the British War Cabinet should be with him, and therefore Mr Eden flew to Gibraltar.

Neither he nor Mr Churchill participated in the conversations between Generals de Gaulle and Giraud, which resulted in the setting up of the united French central authority in Algiers. Mr Churchill, on the two-day visit to the British and American troops, looked extremely fit. He was acclaimed throughout the visit by the population of North Africa.