BEGINNING OF END

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 July 1943, Page 3

BEGINNING OF END

SEEN BV MR ROOSEVELT STEP TOWARDS LIBERATION OF FRANCE. AND DESTRUCTION OF FORCES OF EVIL. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 10. When President Roosevelt addressed General Giraud and other guests at a dinner party at the White House just before 10 o’clock, local time, last night, he described the invasion of Sicily as the beginning of the end. The President said he had just had word of the first attack against the soft underbelly of the Axis in Europe. He asked the guests not to reveal the invasion, because of the previous arrangements for simultaneous announcements in Algiers,' Washington, and London. He paid a tribute to the cooperation between the British, French and Americans, who had been working in “complete harmony.” After referring to Mr Churchill’s' “end of the beginning” statement last autumn, the President added: “I think we can almost say that this action tonight is the beginning of the end. We are going to be ashore in a naval, air and military sense, Once there, we have the opportunity of going in different directions, and we have not forgotten that France is in one of the directions. Even if the move is not directed at this moment against France itself, the ultimate objective is the liberation of the people of France, not merely in the southern part, but also in northern France. “We have not won the war yet, but one happy thing is that, with the help of General Giraud, we have unified the military situation, We want to help rearm the French forces and build the French strength so that when the time comes from the military point of view, when we get into France itself and throw the Germans out, there will be a French army and French ships working with the British and ourselves.” MESSAGE TO THE POPE. Mr Roosevelt has sent a message to the Pope stating, according to a Washington message, that during the invasion of Italian soil churches and religious institutions would be spared the devastation of war and the neutral status of the Vatican, would be respected. “By the time this message reaches y.cur Holiness a landing in force by American and British troops will have taken place on Italian soil,” the message stated. “Our soldiers have come to rid Italy of Fascism and all its unhappy symbols, and to drive out the Nazi oppressors who infest her soil. There is no need to reaffirm that respect for religious beliefs and free exercise of religion worship is fundamental to our ideals. Churches and religious institutions will, to the extent that is in our power, be spared the devastations of war during the struggle ahead. Throughout the period of the operations the neutral status of Vatican City, as well as the Papal domains throughout Italy, will be respected. “I look forward, as does your Holiness, to the bright day when the peace of God returns to the world. We are convinced that this will occur pnly when the forces of evil which now hold vast areas of Europe and Asia enslaved have been utterly destroyed.”'