Evening star., 1942-11-26
Text of Wilkes Toronto Address
War Is Grond Coalition Of Peoples Fighting for Liberation
Or 1t Nothing He Declares Speech at SoveAd Roey

the Russians were not going to lose.
And I said So
Stalingrad stands today, in the
fourth month Of siege, and her en-
emies are broken, in retreat. Winter
has come across the North Cau-
casian steppe. Hitler has not taken
Russian oil. Hitler has not taken
Moscow. Hitler has not taken the
Red Army. And I say to you to-
night on the basis of what I saw
with my own eyes: He will not
take them.
In China I saw nation already
five years at war. The front
saw there was stable front The
Chinese were not retreating there
or anywhere else on their vast bat
tlefield against Japan
In places they were advancing
In a military sense. And every
where they were advancing in the
sense that they we're building with
incredible industry, ingenuity and
patience, the very sineWs of war
which they need and which we
cannot give them.
In Africa I saw combination Of
the skill and resources of Great
Britain, Canada, Australia, the Free
French and the United States. I
naturally was proud of the per-
formance of our planes and pilots
and I shared the eager anticipation
with which officers and men alike
awaited the arrival of the new Gen.
Sherman tanks, only few days be-
fore unloaded at the Suez.
Saw U. S. Flying Vanguard.
I visited Gen. Brereton's camp of
intrepid American aviators. These
were our vanguard, men who were
contributing daily to the sinking of
German transports bringing aid and
comfort to Rommel across the Med
iterranean.
And then on the last lap of my
journey crossed Alaska and Can
ada. There, too, was front For
there l saw the fine cooperation of
American and Canadian engineers
laying out airfelds for vital air
supply lines. There I saw them to-
gether building the Alaskan high
way, the great water artery which
will make possible the further en-
circlement of both the japanese and
the Germans.
found encouragement and hope
on all the fighting fronts. And I
found the resolution to win in the
minds and hearts of the people be-
hind those fronts. But I also found
and this troubled me greatly-I
also found worry and doubt in the
hearts and minds of the people be-
hind those fronts. They were
searching for common purpose.
This was plain in the questions
they asked about America after the
war, about Great Britain, about
Russia. The whole world seemed to
me in an eager, demanding, hun
CRY. ambitious mood ready for in
credible sacrifices if only to justify
the sacrifices already made.
Europe in 1917 was probably in
much the same mood. 1t is an in
evitable corollary of blood and war
WEAKNESS. Then, in 1917, Lenin
gave the world one set of answers.
A little later Wilson gave it an
other. Neither set of answers ever
became blood-and-b bone part of the
war, but were superimposed on it
IN the peace. So neither set of an
sWers redeemed the war or made 1t
anything more than a costly fight
for power. 1t ended with an armis-
tice, not real peace.
l do not believe this war need
be the same. There are now. dur
ing the war, common purposes in
the minds of men living as far
apart as the citizens of Great Brit
ain and the free commonwealth of