I was asked last week whether I was
aware of some uneasiness which it was said existed in the country on
account of the gravity, as it was described, of the war situation. So
I thought it would be a good thing to go and see for myself what this
'uneasiness' amounted to, and I went to some of our great cities and
seaports which had been most heavily bombed, and to some of the
places where the poorest people had got it worst. I have come back
not only reassured, but refreshed. To leave the offices in Whitehall
with their ceaseless hum of activity and stress, and go out to the
front, by which I mean the streets and wharves of London or
Liverpool, Manchester, Cardiff, Swansea or Bristol, is like going out
of a hothouse on to the bridge of a fighting ship. It is a tonic
which I should recommend any who are suffering from fretfulness to
take in strong doses when they have need of it.
It is quite true that I have seen many painful
scenes of havoc, and of fine buildings and acres of cottage homes
blasted into rubble-heaps of ruin. But it is just in those very
places where the malice of the savage enemy has done its worst, and
where the ordeal of the men, women and children has been most severe,
that I found their morale most high and splendid. Indeed, I felt
encompassed by an exaltation of spirit in the people which seemed to
lift mankind and its troubles above the level of material facts into
that joyous serenity we think belongs to a better world than
this.
Of their kindness to me I cannot speak, because
I have never sought it or dreamed of it, and can never deserve it. I
can only assure you that I and my colleagues, or comrades rather -
for that is what they are - will toil with every scrap of life and
strength, according to the lights that are granted to us, not to fail
these people or be wholly unworthy oftheir faithful and generous
regard. The British nation is stirred and moved as it has never been
at any time in its long, eventful, famous history, and it is no
hackneyed trope of speech to say that theymean to conquer or to die.
What a triumph the life of these battered
cities is, over the worst that fire and bomb can do. What a
vindication of the civilized and decent way ofliving we have been
trying to work for and work towards in our Island. What a proof of
the virtues of free institutions. What a test of the quality of our
local authorities, and of institutions and customs and societies so
steadily built. This ordeal by fire has even in a certain sense
exhilarated the manhood and womanhood of Britain. The sublime but
also terrible and sombre experiences and emotions of the battlefield
which for centuries had been reserved for the soldiers and sailors,
are now shared, for good or ill, by the entire population. All are
proud to be under the fire of the enemy. Old men, little children,
the crippled veterans of former wars, aged women, the ordinary
hard-pressed citizen or subject of the King, as he likes to call
himself, the sturdy workmen who swing the hammers or load the ships;
skilful craftsmen; the members of every kind of ARP Service, are
proud to feel that they stand in the line together with our fighting
men, when one of the greatest of causes is being fought out, as
fought out it will be, to the end. This is indeed the grand heroic
period of our history, and the light of glory shines on all.
You may imagine how deeply I feel my own
responsibility to all these people; my responsibility to bear my part
in bringing them safely out of this long, stern, scowling valley
through which we are marching, and not to demand from them the
sacrifices and exertions in vain.
I have thought in this diffcult period, when so
much fighting and so many critical and complicated manouvres are
going on, that it is above all things important that our policy and
conduct should be upon the highest level, and that honour should be
our guide. Very few people realize how small were the forces with
which General Wavell, that fine Commander whom we cheered in good
days and will hack through bad - how small were the forces which took
the bulk of the Italian masses in Libya prisoners. In none of his
successive victories could General Wavell maintain in the desert or
bring into action more than two divisions, or about 30,000 men. When
we reached Benghazi, and what was left of Mussolini's legions
scurried back along the dusty road to Tripoli, a call was made upon
us which we could not resist. Let me tell you about that call.
You will remember how in November the Italian
Dictator fell upon the unoffending Greeks, and without reason and
without warning invaded their country, and how the Greek nation,
reviving their classic fame, hurled his armies back at the
double-quick. Meanwhile Hitler, who had been creeping and worming his
way steadily forward, doping and poisoning and pinioning, one after
the other Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria, suddenly made it clear that
he would come to the rescue of his fellow-criminal. The lack of unity
among the Balkan States had enabled him to build up a mighty army in
their midst. While nearly all the Greek troops were busy beating the
Italians, the tremendous German military machine suddenly towered up
on their other frontier. In their mortal peril the Greeks turned to
us for succour. Strained as were our own resources, we could not say
them nay. By solemn guarantee given before the war, Great Britain had
promised them her help. They declared they would fight for their
native soil even if neither of their neighbours made common cause
with them, and even if we left them to their fate. But we could not
do that. There are rules against that kind of thing; and to break
those rules would be fatal to the honour of the British Empire,
without which we could neither hope nor deserve to win this hard war.
Military defeat or miscalculation can be redeemed. The fortunes of
war are fickle and changing. But an act of shame would deprive us of
the respect which we now enjoy throughout the world, and this would
sap the vitals of our strength.
During the last year we have gained by our
bearing and conduct a potent hold upon the sentiments of the people
of the United States. Never, never in our history, have we been held
in such admiration and regard across the Atlantic Ocean. In that
great Republic, now in much travail and stress of soul, it is
customary to use all the many valid, solid arguments about American
interests and American safety, which depend upon the destruction of
Hitler and his foul gang and even fouler doctrines. But in the long
run - believe me, for I know - the action of the United States will
be dictated, not by methodical calculations of profit and loss, but
by moral sentiment, and by that gleaming flash of resolve which lifts
the hearts of men and nations, and springs from the spiritual
foundations ofhuman life itself.
We, for our part, were of course bound to
hearken to the Greek appeal to the utmost limit ofour strength. We
put the case to the Dominions of Australia and New Zealand, and their
Governments, without in any way ignoring the hazards, told us that
they felt the same as we did. So an important part of the moibile
portion of the Army of the Nile was sent to Greece in fulfilment of
our pledge. It happened that the divisions available and best suited
to this task were from New Zealand and Australia, and that only about
half the troops who took part in this dangerous expedition came from
the Mother Country. I see the German propaganda is trying to make bad
blood between us and Australia by making out that we have used them
to do what we would not have asked of the British Army. I shall leave
it to Australia to deal with that taunt.
Let us see what has happened. We knew, of
course, that the forces we could send to Greece would not by
themselves alone be sumcient to stem the German tide of invasion. But
there was a very real hope that the neighbours of Greece would by our
intervention be drawn to stand in line together with her while time
remained. How nearly that came off will be known some day. The
tragedy of Yugoslavia has been that these brave people had a
government who hoped to purchase an ignoble immunity by submission to
the Nazi will. Thus when at last the people of Yugoslovia found out
where they were being taken, and rose in one spontaneous surge of
revolt, they saved the soul and future of their country: but it was
already too late to save its territory. They had no time to mobilize
their armies. They were struck down by the ruthless and highly
mechanized Hun before they could even bring their armies into the
field. Great disasters have occurred in the Balkans. Yugoslavia has
been beaten down. Only in the mountains can she continue her
resistance. The Greeks have been overwhelmed. Their victorious
Albanian army has been cut off and forced to surrender, and it has
been left to the Anzacs and their British comrades to fight their way
back to the sea, leaving their mark on all who hindered them.
I turn aside from the stony path we have to
tread, to indulge a moment of lighter relief. I dare say you have
read in the newspapers that, by a special proclamation, the Italian
Dictator has congratulated the Italian army in Albania on the
glorious laurels they have gained by their victory over the Greeks.
Here surely is the world's record in the domain of the ridiculous and
the contemptible. This whipped jackal, Mussolini, who to save his own
skin has made all Italy a vassal state of Hitler's Empire, comes
frisking up at the side of the German tiger with yelpings not only of
appetite - that can be understood - but even of triumph. Different
things strike different people in different ways. But I am sure there
are a great many millions in the British Empire and in the United
States, who will find a new object in life in making sure that we
come to the final reckoning this absurd impostor will be abandoned to
public justice and universal scorn.
While these grievous events were taking place
in the Balkan Peninsula and in Greece, our forces in Libya have
sustained a vexatious and damaging defeat. The Germans advanced
sooner and in greater strength than we or our Generals expected. The
bulk of our armoured troops, which had played such a decisive part in
beating the Italians, had to be refitted, and the single armoured
brigade which had been judged suffcient to hold the frontier till
about the middle of May was worsted and its vehicles largely
destroyed by a somewhat stronger German armoured force. Our infantry,
which had not exceeded one division, had to fall back upon the very
large Imperial armies that have been assembled and can be nourished
and maintained in the fertile delta of the Nile.
Tobruk - the fortress of Tobruk - which Aanks
any German advance on Egypt, we hold strongly. There we have repulsed
many attacks, causing the enemy heavy losses and taking many
prisoners. That is how the matter stands in Egypt and on the Libyan
front.
We must now expect the war in the Mediterranean
on the sea, in the desert, and above all in the air, to become very
fierce, varied and widespread. We had cleared the Italians out of
Cyrenaica, and it now lies with us to purge that province of the
Germans. That will be a harder task, and we cannot expect to do it at
once. You know I never try to make out that defeats are victories. I
have never underrated the German as a warrior. Indeed I told you a
month ago that the swift, unbroken course of victories which we had
gained over the Italians could not possibly continue, and that
misfortunes must be expected. There is only one thing certain about
war, that it is full of disappointments and also full of mistakes. It
remains to be seen, however, whether it is the Germans who have made
the mistake in trampling down the Balkan States and in making a river
of blood and hate between themselves and the Greek and Yugoslav
peoples. It remains also to be seen whether they have made a mistake
in their attempt to invade Egypt with the forces and means of supply
which they have now got. Taught by experience, I make it a rule not
to prophesy about battles which have yet to be fought out. This,
however, I will venture to say, that I should be very sorry to see
the tasks of the combatants in the Middle East exchanged, and that
General Wavell's armies should be in the position of the German
invaders. That is only a personal opinion, and I can well understand
you may take a different view. It is certain that fresh dangers
besides those which threaten Egypt may come upon us in the
Mediterranean. The war may spread to Spain and Morocco. It may spread
eastward to Turkey and Russia. The Huns may lay their hands for a
time upon the granaries of the Ukraine and the oil-wells of the
Caucasus. They may dominate the Black Sea. They may dominate the
Caspian. Who can tell? We shall do our best to meet them and fight
them wherever they go. But there is one thing which is certain. There
is one thing which rises out of the vast welter which is sure and
solid, and which no one in his senses can mistake. Hitler cannot find
safety from avenging justice in the East, in the Middle East, or in
the Far East. In order to win this war, he must either conquer this
Island by invasion, or he must cut the ocean life-line which joins us
to the United States.
Let us look into these alternatives, if you
will bear with me for a few minutes longer. When I spoke to you last,
early in February, many people believed the Nazi boastings that the
invasion of Britain was about to begin. It has not begun yet, and
with every week that passes we grow stronger on the sea, in the air,
and in the numbers, quality, training and equipment of the great
Armies that now guard our Island. When I compare the position at home
as it is today with what it was in the summer of last year, even
after making allowance for a much more elaborate mechanical
preparation on the part of the enemy, I feel that we have very much
to be thankful for, and I believe that provided our exertions and our
vigilance are not relaxed even for a moment, we may be confident that
we shall give a very good account of ourselves. More than that it
would be boastful to say. Less than that it would be foolish to
believe.
But how about our life-line across the
Atlantic? What is to happen if so many ofour merchant ships are sunk
that we cannot bring in the food we need to nourish our brave people?
What if the supplies ofwar materials and war weapons which the United
States are seeking to send us in such enormous quantities should in
large part be sunk on the way? What is to happen then? In February,
as you may remember, that bad man in one of his raving outbursts
threatened us with a terrifying increase in the numbers and
activities of his U-boats and in his air-attack - not only on our
Island but, thanks to his use of French and Norwegian harbours, and
thanks to the denial to us of the Irish bases - upon our shipping far
out into the Atlantic. We have taken and are taking all possible
measures to meet this deadly attack, and we are now fighting against
it with might and main. That is what is called the Battle of the
Atlantic, which in order to survive we have got to win on salt water
just as decisively as we had to win the Battle ofBritain last August
and September in the air.
Wonderful exertions have been made by our Navy
and Air Force; by the hundreds of mine-sweeping vessels which with
their marvellous appliances keep our ports clear in spite of all the
enemy can do; by the men who build and repair our immense fleets of
merchant ships; by the men who load and unload them; and need I say
by the officers and men of the Merchant Navy who go out in all
weathers and in the teeth ofall dangers to fight for the life of
their native land and for a cause they comprehend and serve. Still,
when you think how easy it is to sink ships at sea and how hard it is
to build them and protect them, and when you remember that we have
never less than two thousand ships afloat and three or four hundred
in the danger zone; when you think of the great armies we are
maintaining and reinforcing in the East, and of the worldwide traffic
we have to carry on - when you remember all this, can you wonder that
it is the Battle of the Atlantic which holds the first place in the
thoughts of those upon whom rests the responsibility for procuring
the victory?
It was therefore with indescribable relief that
I learned of the tremendous decisions lately taken by the President
and people of the United States. The American Fleet and flying boats
have been ordered to patrol the wide waters of the Western
Hemisphere, and to warn the peaceful shipping of all nations outside
the combat zone of the presence of lurking U-boats or raiding
cruisers belonging to the two aggressor nations. We British shall
therefore be able to concentrate our protecting forces far more upon
the routes nearer home, and to take a far heavier toll of the U-boats
there. I have felt for some time that something like this was bound
to happen. The President and Congress of the United States, having
newly fortified themselves by contact with their electors, have
solemnly pledged their aid to Britain in this war because they deem
our cause just, and because they know their own interests and safety
would be endangered if we were destroyed. They are taxing themselves
heavily. They have passed great legislation. They have turned a large
part of their gigantic industry to making the munitions which we
need. They have even given us or lent us valuable weapons of their
own. I could not believe that they would allow the high purposes to
which they have set themselves to be frustrated and the products of
their skill and labour sunk to the bottom of the sea. U-boat warfare
as conducted by Germany is entirely contrary to international
agreements freely subscribed to by Germany only a few years ago.
There is no effective blockade, but only a merciless murder and
marauding over wide, indiscriminate areas utterly beyond the control
of the German seapower. When I said ten weeks ago: 'Give us the tools
and we will finish the job', I meant, give them to us: put them
within our reach - and that is what it now seems the Americans are
going to do. And that is why I feel a very strong conviction that
though the Battle of the Atlantic be will be long and hard, and its
issue is by no means yet determined, it has entered upon a more grim
but at the same time a far more favourable phase. When you come to
think of it, the United States are very closely bound up with us now,
and have engaged themselves deeply in giving us moral, material, and,
within the limits I have mentioned, naval support.
It is worth while therefore to take a look on
both sicies of the ocean at the forces which are facing each other in
this awful struggle, from which there can be no drawing back. No
prudent and far-seeing man can doubt that the eventual and total
defeat of Hitler and Mussolini is certain, in view of the respective
declared resolves of the British and American democracies. There are
less than seventy million malignant Huns - some of whom are curable
and others killable - many of whom are already engaged in holding
down Austrians, Czechs, Poles, French, srnd the many other ancient
races they now bully and pillage. The peoples of the British Empire
and of the United States number nearly two hundred millions in their
homelands and in the British Dominions alone. They possess the
unchallengeable command ofthe oceans, and will soon obtain decisive
superiority in the air. They have more wealth, more technical
resources, and they make more steel, than the whole of the rest of
the world put together. They are determined that the cause of freedom
shall not be trampled down, nor the tide of world progress turned
backwards, by the criminal Dictators.
While therefore we naturally view with sorrow
and anxiety much that is happening in Europe and in Africa, and may
happen in Asia, we must not lose our sense of proportion and thus
become discouraged or alarmed. When we face with a steady eye the
dimculties which lie before us, we may derive new confidence from
remembering those we have already overcome. Nothing that is happening
now is comparable in gravity with the dangers through which we passed
last year. Nothing that can happen in the East is comparable with
what is happening in the West.
Last time I spoke to you I quoted the lilles of
Longfellow which President Roosevelt had written out for me in his
own hand. I have some other lines which are less well known but which
seem apt and appropriate to our fortunes tonight, and I believe they
will be so judged wherever the English language is spoken or the flag
offreedom flies:
