Evening star., 1942-12-02
Knox
Continued From First Page.)

Army In Africa and We equipped
| them.
I'VE have a Navy on all the seas
and it has no apologies for its per-
| formance to date.
I'VE have mounted offensives in
two hemispheres.
And the first anniversary of the
war is still to come" he added.
Yes, think as long as we do not
overlook our failures there is moth
ing very immoral about taking a
little comfort from our successes.
have said it before and I will again
risk the assertion that, in view of
the complexities and the enormous
ness of the task, to date this has
been Americas beSt-run war"
On the debit side, the Secretary
OF Navy cited the Nations $4,000
men killed and missing since Pearl
Harbor. the staggering total of
S46 900 100000 spent on munitions
and war construction this year and
predicted that the bill for 1943 would
be more than $4,000 900 900.
And we might as we'll face the
hard fact right now ne said. that
we have a tough period directly
ahead of us in the Atlantic. The
operations in North Africa have
tremendously increased the Navy's
task.
With the conveyance Of convoy
routes at the western end of the
Mediterranean the targets are null
tlplIed in the very front yard of the
German submarines and airplanes.
We know that they have large and
growing Uboat feet in the Atlantic
and more in training in the Baltic.
we have made a good start in
North Africa. We may have to pay
a price for it and we would do well
to prepare ourselves for losses at sea
from submarine attacks in the next
four or five months"
Secretary Knox declared that ci-
william sacrifices in 1912 were but
the forerunner of what's to come. =
In l943, he observed. the Nation will
have to pay more taxes. work harder
and experience more scarcities in
many articles of food. convenience
and comfort.
Above and beyond all these
changes. however, there will be one
more important than all the rest" ="
he added ''As time and battles go
on, more and more homes in this
land will display service flags with
stars of gold. AS war exacts it's
awful price they will become more
impatient with delay, more in
tolerant of error.
Summed up, the changes which
are ahead of us will mean that we
will all live and work much closer
to the war effort. IT, as some say.
we have only been ankle deep in the
was this year we will be up to our
necks in the year ahead-in what
Winston Churchill called that stern
and terrible year
And until we are in this thing
up to our necks we cannot hope to
end it."
Secretary Knox termed America s
first year of war a good beginning, -
but cautioned that lit is only a be-
ginning"
The horizon is brighter than it
has been since that dread day three
years ago when Hitler unleashed his
mad furies on the world. What was
a heroic, hopeless siege at Stain
grad is now great Russian often
sive. And in the north the uncon-
querable Red armies are rolling the
invader back.
In the South Pacific we have
won and hold precious foothold
against enormous odds. The seas
about are japanese graveyards
Egypt is liberated, and the remnants
of the vaunted Afrika Korps are
preparing for last stand.
China stands firm. French North
Africa is in our hands. and in
Tunisia the Axis hour draws near.
Italy totters.
But. most of all, the masks are
off at last. The soul of France.
which never bowed to defeat, is free
again. free to fight the common
foe again. Stricken France
begged for our help in June. 1910.
We could not respond. But now we
can and we say to the French. .
Take heart: the aid you asked for
is at hand; we are coming. and we
are very near