FIGHT FOR WORLD FREEDOM

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21197, 21 August 1940, Page 7

FIGHT FOR WORLD FREEDOM

MR CHURCHILL REVIEWS WAR SITUATION HITLER’S RESPONSIBILITY FAMINE IN EUROPE (Official Wireless) (Recevied August 21, 11 a.m.) ' RUGBY, August 20 The Prime Minister, Mr Winston Churchill, opened a dehate in the House of Commons with a comprehensive review of the war situation. One subject dealt with was the blockade. Mr Churchill said: “ It is our intention to maintain and enforce a strict blockade, not only of Germany but of Italy, France and all other countries which have fallen into the German power. I read that Hitler has also proclaimed a strict blockade of the British Isles. No one can complain of that. What, indeed, would be a matter for general complaint would be if we were to prolong the agony to all Europe by allowing food to go in to nourish the Nazis and their war effort or allow food to go in to the subjugated peoples which certainly would be pillaged by their Nazi conquerors. “ There have been many proposals, founded on the highest motives, that food should be allowed to pass the blockade for the relief of these populations. I regret that we must refuse these requests. The Nazis are boasting that they have created a new unified economy in Europe. They have repeatedly stated that they possess ample food reserves and can feed the captive peoples. In a German broadcast on June 26 it was said that while Hoover’s plan for relieving France, Belgium and Holland deserved commendation the German forces had already taken the necessary steps.

“ We know that in Norway, when the German troops went in, there were food supplies to last for years. We know that Poland, though not a rich country, usually produced sufficient food for her people. Moreover, the other countries which Hitler has invaded all held considerable stocks when the Germans entered and are themselves very substantial food producers. If all this food is not available now it can only be because it has been removed to feed the people of Germany and give them increased rations during the last few months.

“ The only agencies which can create famine in any part of Europe during the coming winter will be the German exactions or German failure to distribute the supplies which they command. Many most valuable foods are essential to the manufacture of vital war materials. If the Germans use these commodities to help them bomb our women and children, rather than to" feed the populations who produce them, we may be sure that any imported food would go the same way or be employed to relieve the enemy of the responsibilities which he has assumed.

“ Let Hitler bear his responsibilities to the full. Let the people of Europe who groan beneath his yoke aid in every way the coming of the day when it will be broken. Meanwhile we can arrange in advance for the speedy entry of food into the enslaved areas when they have been cleared of the German forces and genuinely have regained their freedom. We shall encourage the building up of food reserves all over the world, so that there shall always be held out before the eyes of the peoples of Europe, including the German and Austrian peoples, the certainty that the shattering of Nazi power will bring them immediate food, freedom and peace.

Masters Of Our Fat« Rehearsing the “cataract of disaster” which had poured out upon the Allies since the new Government was formed in mid-May, Mr Churchill said: “If we had been confronted at the beginning of May with such a prospect it would have seemed incredible that at this point of the period of horror and disaster we should stand erect, sure of ourselves, masters of our fate and with the conviction of final victory burning unquenchable in our hearts. Few would have believed that we could survive. “None would have believed that we should today not only feel stronger but should actually be stronger than we have ever been. “Let us see what has happened. The British nation and the British Empire, finding themselves alone, stood undismayed against disaster. No one flinched or wavered—nay, some who had formerly thought of peace now think only of war. Our people are united and resolved as they have never been before. Death and ruin have become small things compared with the shame of defeat or failure in duty. “It may be that even greater ordeals lie before us. We will face whatever is coming. We are sure of ourselves and our cause. Here is the supreme fact. 2,000,000 Armed Men “Meanwhile we have not only fortified our hearts but our island. We have rearmed and rebuilt our armies in a degree which had been deemed impossible a few months ago. We have ferried across the Atlantic, thanks to our friends over there, an immense mass of munitions of all kinds, cannon, rifles, machineguns, cartridges, shells, all safely landed without the loss of a gun or a round. ‘‘The output of our own factories, working as they have never worked before, has poured forth. A vast British Army is at home. “More than 2,000.000 determined men have rifles and bayonets in their hands tonight, and threequarters of them are in the regular military formations. The whole island bristles against invaders from the sea or air. Strength of the Navy “Our Navy is far stronger than at

the beginning of the war. A great flow of new construction was set on foot at the outbreak, and is now beginning to come in. We hope our friends across the ocean will send us timely reinforcements to bridge the ?o?n bet ' veen the peace flotillas of 1»39 and the war flotillas of 1941. The seas and oceans are open. The U-boats are contained, the magnetic mine is mastered, the merchant tonnage under the British flag after a year of unlimited U-boat warfare after eight months of intensive mining attack, is larger than when we began. “We have in addition under our control 4,000,000 tons of shipping from the captive countries which have taken refuge here or in the harbours of the Empire. Our stocks of food of all kinds are many times greater than in the days of peace.” British Success In Air The Prime Minister came next to the air battles of the last few days, in which the course of the fighting so far had been most favourable to Britain. “Greater efforts may yet be made by the enemy than any he has so far put forth,” said Mr Churchill. “Hostile airfields are still being developed in France and the Low Countries, and the movement of squadron material for attacking us is still proceeding. “Hitler could not admit defeat in his air attack on Britain without the most serious injury. “If, after all these boastings, blood- | curdling threats and lurid accounts I trumpeted round the world of the | damage he has inflicted, of the vast i numbers of our Air Force he has I shot down—so he says, with so little I loss to himself—after the tales of j panic-stricken British crouched in | their holes cursing the plutocratic ; Government which has led them to such a plight, his whole air onslaught were forced tamely to peter out, the Fuehrer’s reputation for veracity of statement might be seriously impugned. “We may be sure, therefore, that he will continue as long as he has the strength and as long as any preoccupations he may have in respect of the Russian Air Force will allow him to do so. “Germany’s numerical superiority in the air remains, but in view of the production in Britain, which already has largely exceeded German production, and the American production only just beginning to

flow in, it will not continue. We shall be able to continue the struggle indefinitely and as long as the enemy pleases, and the longer it continues the more rapid will be our approach first toward that parity and then into that superiority in the air upon which, in a large measure, the decision of the war defends.” Shattering Blows On Germany Mr Churchill paid eloquent tributes to the Royal Air Force—to the fighters’ pilots and to the bomber squadrons who, travelling far into Germany, inflicted shattering blows upon the whole technical warmaking structure in Nazi power. “We are able to verify the results of the bombing of military targets in Germany not only by the reports which reach us through many sources but also by photography,” he said. “I have no hesitation in saying that this process of bombing the military industries and communications of Germany and air bases and storage depots from which we are attacked, which will continue upon an everincreasing scale until the end of the war and may in another year attain dimensions hitherto undreamed of, affords one of the surest, if not the shortest, of all roads to victory. Even if the Nazi legions stood triumphant on the Black Sea, even if Hitler was at the gates of India, it would profit him nothing if at the same time the entire economic and scientific apparatus of German war power lay shattered and pulverised at home.”

The Canadian Minister of Defence. Colonel J. L. Ralston, has announced the appointment of Colonel Arthur Letson, of Vancouver, to be Canadian military attache at Washington.