Evening star., 1940-06-03
By the Associated Press.

Anthony Eden's address yesterday
as transcribed here by N. B. c.:
In the battle of the ports
which has been raging during
the last three weeks Germany
has made great strategic gains.
The loss to us in equipment and
in material has been heavy, but
there is now another side to
this picture. The bulk of the
British Expeditionary Force has
been saved and quite apart from
what the French have done for
their own forces we have been
able to bring tens of thousands of
our French allies off with us from
Dunkerque.
Nor is this effort ended. -Four
days ago not one of us would
have dared to hope that the iso-
lated Allied armies could have
fought their way through the
bottleneck to the coast.
These men have marched
hundreds of miles. They have
fought countless actions with an
enemy that hemmed them in and
pressed upon them from three
sides.
The German high command
proudly announced that they
were surrounded. They have
fought their way through. How
have they achieved the SEEM
ingly impossible? Man for man
the British troops have proved
themselves superior to the Ger
mans whenever they have met
them. All accounts show that
the British Expeditionary Force
took toll of the enemy greatly
in excess of that suffered by
themselves. On at least two oc-
caSions, at Arras and on the
Ypres Canal, the losses suffered
by the German Army were enor-
nous.
Army's Return Carried Out
With Little Confusion.
So 1t is that at the last the
German plans were foiled and
that despite the surrender of the
Belgian Army, our own troops
and the French allies with them
have fought their way through.
Let me now state the sequence
OF events. At the call of tho
King of the Belgians, the B.
E. F. advanced into Belgium, and
took up its positions on the River
Dell. The advance lasted several
days. Through events they could
not control, our army had to
come back in less than half that
time. 1t did so with little con-
fusion and with few losses. Sew
enty-five miles forward, a fight
at the end of the advance, and
Is miles back, fighting all the
way, all in the space of 10 days.
That was the first phase OF
the battle of the ports and it
was brilliantly executed. I have
report of one division which
had not lost a single straggler on
that 150-mile march and here
is quotation from an account
of an eyewitness of our troops
on the front. mo display of drill
at Olympia would be smarter
than the work of men of our
forces that I saw. The feeling
of confidence was magnificent"
And SO the British EXpedi-
tionary Force found itself back
on the shore, with its strength
In men and material almost in
tact, but meanwhile, the German
mechanical columns were pour
ing through the gap to the south,
advancing across our lines Of
communication, biting ever deep
er into our back areas.
Desperate Efforts Made
To Stem the Tide.
Desperate efforts were made
to stem the tide. Units who had
been sent to France to supply
some of the much-needed labor
behind the lines were thrown
into the fight and acquitted
themselves splendidly. Others
were sent to hold the channel
ports in an effort to keep open
communications for the B. E. F.
Some troops marched IS miles
In "a hours. British brigades on
the f1anks stood firm, despite
enormously extended frontage
they had to defend. At one time
the expeditionary force of nine
divisions was holding front OF
80 miles. They held on and they
fought back.
On the West. British troops de-
Tended the narrowing gap to the
sea. Day after day the battle
continued and at the end of it
they had fought themselves to a
standstill, but they held their
ground and by doing so they
enabled the remainder of the
expeditionary force to get clear.
On the east. corps artillery
coming into action against the
enemy massing for attack In
fiicted such heavy casualties that
the attack never developed.
The stories of individual ex-
ploits at this time are legion: An
anti-tank gunner, who knocked
out seven tanks; a hero who
after knocking out hostile tanks
swan a canal to bring back
marked maps and other booty.
But the triumph is not the tri-
umph of individuals, however
gallant; it is the triumph OF an
army.
Unreasonable Experience
And Self Confidence.
There is no braver epic in all
our annals. There, then is the
story of the battle of the ports.
From the moment of the collapse
of the Belgian Army, there was
only one course left to the Allied
Armies, to hold the line around
Dunkerque, the only port that
remained, and to embark as many
men as possible before their
rear guards were overwhelmed.
Thanks to the magnificent and
untiring cooperation of the
Allied Navies and Air Forces, we
have been able to embark and
save more than our-fifths of
that British Expeditionary Force
which the Germans claimed to