NOTE OF CAUTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 July 1943, Page 3

NOTE OF CAUTION

SOUNDED BY CHURCHILL ALLIED FORTUNES RISING. BUT SOMBRE JOURNEY YET TO BE MADE. (By Telegraph—Press Association -Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.10 a.m.) LONDON, May 27. Jn the course of his statement in the House of Commons on Italy, the J’rime Minister (Mr Churchill) made some observations on the general war situation. The Government, he said, had a right to ask for the solid and sustained confidence of Parliament.

"We feel,” he added, “that the House would not wish us to be deprived of the fullest freedom to act in the nation's name as we think fit at this swiftly-moving juncture. I venture to offer another word of caution which is not inappropriate in a period when, not unnaturally, our spirits run high. What is Italy as a war unit? She is, or was perhaps, one-tenth of Germany’s power. German hopes of U-boat warfare turning the tide of war are sinking as fast as the U-boats themselves. Nevertheless do not let us allow this remarkable inclination of our fortunes to blind us to the immensity of the task before us, and the privations and tribulations still to be endured and overcome. The German national strength is still massive. The German armies, though seriously mauled by three Russian campaigns, are still intact. Hitler commands more than 300 divisions, excluding satellites. Three-quarters of those divisions are mobile. Most of them continue to be well-equipped. We are fighting some of these divisions in Sicily and see that they offer a stubborn resistance in positions well adapted to defence. The authority of the German central Government grips and pervades every form of German life and the resources of dozens of lands are in its hands for exploitation, and harvest prospects are reported to be fairly good. This Nazi war machine is a hateful incubus upon Europe which we must resolve utterly to destroy, and the affairs of Italy must be handled with this supreme object constantly in view. I venture to claim that events have vindicated both our strategy and policy and I look forward, as the months unfold, to offering Parliament further convincing proofs of this assertion, but we cannot afford to make any large mistake which careful forethought can avoid, nor can we prolong, by avoidable mismanagement, the sombre journey in which we shall persevere to the end.”