Evening star., 1940-07-21

forestall invasion, Churchill said that
there will be no placid lying down Of
the people in submission" but that
city" would be defended.
I'VE would rather see London laid in
ruins and ashes than 1t should be tamely
and abjectly enslaved," Mr.. Churchill
announced. He put Britain in the role
OF ultimate crusader, prepared, not only
to fend of the Germans from Britain
itself, but to go forth and deliver the
European continent from Hitler, who
now holds most of the continent. These
brave words evoked an immediate re-
sponse from Italy. Virginio Gayda, the
Fascist editor of II Giornale dItalia,
whose written words reflect the Musso-
lini thought, said in his paper:
Britain will have to settle her last
account. She will have to choose be-
tween submission to the renovating,
restorative forces of Europe, or ex-
tremely grim, violent war in which mex
orable destruction, a fateful, propitious
step toward final overthrow, will be
measured not by years Or weeks, Of which
Churchill spoke. but by days or hours" :"
Within England Churchill had his
troubles, as he had them In the Far
East, where Japan was
ChurehiIrs taking advantage of the
Troubles situation in Europe, and
on the Continent, where
his enemies were predicting his and
his empires fall. The domestic dif1culty
arose over the official announcement
that the government had postponed its
plan to transfer British child refugees
to the United States. Laborites in the
House Of Commons, led by James Grit
f1ths, protested that thousands of chill
dren from wealthy homes were being
sent overseas while the boys and the girls
OF the poor were forced to remain in
England and face war conditions. Glenn
ent Attlee, Churchill's lieutenant in the
House, said in reply that limited num-
/ ber OF children would be sent over the
Atlantic where 1t is possible to provide
proper convoy for the ships carrying
them. Registration of children under
the evacuation scheme went ahead So
far $4,000 have applied to go to Canada
and 10000 to the United States. Three
days later, Thursday, Mr.. Churchill told
the House that the children's exodus
abroad would be most undesirable"
AFTER months of widespread if ILL
directed bombardment," he said, "allay-
ing fears OF those who felt the English
child might be wiped off the map, our
casualties have been singularly slight"
The bombardment by German planes
continued through the week and took
on new intensity Friday
Plones Over night after Hitler's speech
EnqIond climaxed the war of
words. Relays of German
dive-bombers and fighting planes battled
over an 800-mile stretch of the British
coast, and $50 German and English
planes battled in the air over the Ertlish
southern coast. To save herself. England
must keep open the lanes to empire like
the lane through the Mediterranean. But
more important she must protect Eng
land itself. The intensity of the German
destruction in. the air raids was disclosed
in Boston last week by the crew of the
Dutch freighter zypenbers, arriving to
load scrap metal for British ports. The
sailors said that Plymouth, England and
Cardiff and Pembroke, Wales, were in
devastation. The Dutch sailors Incl
dentally criticized the treatment they
had received from the British.
Germany broadened its front line for
the threatened invasion of England by
landing forces on the French island of
Ouessant, off the French coast of Brit
tany, where the English Channel Joins
the Atlantic, 120 miles south of Lands
End, England's westernmost point. The
Germans claimed they sank 47,0OO tons
OF British shipping, and England claimed
her air fighters brought down Tuesday
afternoon three bombers as well as
bombing concentration of barges near
Armentieres in France. The Admiralty
in London last week announced the
sinking June 10 of the naval auxiliary
vessel Vandyck, 1924 tons, of the coast
of Norway.
The relative quiet of the week-when
London newspapers gave greater space
to the Democratic con-
HitIer's vention than to the war
Warning brought repeated re-
ports of peace feelers On
Friday Hitler sent out the feeler.
Count Ciano, the italian Foreign Min
lister, journeyed to Berlin to listen to
the leader of Italy's axis partner address
the Reichstag. Earlier Berlin had cele-
brated its success at war by bell-ringing
and hag-waving to welcome home troops
from the west. Hitler praised his SOL
diers and damned the Versailles treaty
for imposing "intolerable" conditions on
Germany. Churchill is "warmonger"
and the English and French leaders Of
the fight against Germany are Grim
inals." II England insists on fighting.
he said. world empire will be de-
stroyed" He boasted of German mill
tary and diplomatic achievements since
last September, when the war opened,
and seemed to appeal to the British
people to cast aside Churchill and FORE
stall the invasion by the Germans.
The first action taken by the British
after the Hitler speech was the strength
ening Of the home frent by putting .
new commander ct the head Of the L.
s