Evening star., 1942-02-16


Is the teri of Prime Minister
ChurchtlPs broadcast last night:
Nearly six months have passed
since, at the end of August, I made
q broadcast directly to my fellow
countrymen. 1t is therefore worth
while looking back over this half
year Of struggle for life-for that
Is what 1t has been and what it is
to see what has happened to our
fortunes and to our prospects.
At that time, in August. I had
the pleasure Of meeting the Presi-
dent of the United States and
drawing up with MIN declaration
OF British and American policy
which has become known to the
world as the Atlantic Charter We
also said a number of other things
about the war. some of which have
had an important influence on its
course.
In those days we met on the terms
of a hard pressed combatant seek
ing assistance from great friend
who was, however, only benevolent
neutral. In those days the Germans
seemed to be tearing the Russian
Armies to pieces and striding on
with growing momentum to Lenin-
grad, to Moscow. to Rostov and
even farther into the heart of
Russia.
RnosAveIt'S Confidence
In Red Army Recalled.
It was thought very daring as
sertion when the President declared
that the Russian Armies would hold
out until winter. You may say that
military men Of all countries,
friend, foe and neutral alike. were
very doubtful whether this would
come true
Our British resources were stretch
ed to the utmost. We had already
been for more than a whole year
absolutely alone in the struggle
with Hitler and Mussolini. We had
to be ready to meet German in
vasion OF our own island We had
to defend Egypt. the Nile Valley
and the Suez Canal Above all, We
had to bring in food, raw materials
and finished munitions across the
Atlantic in the teeth of German and
italian U-boats and aircraft. We
have to do all this still.
1t seemed our duty in these August
days to do everything in our power
to help the Russian people to meet
the prodigious onslaught which had
been launched against them. 1t IS
little enough we have done for Rus
sia. considering all she has done 20
beat Hitler and for the common
cause In these circumstances. We
British had no means whatever of
providing effectively against the new
war with Japan.
Such was the outlook when I
talked with President Roosevelt in
the middle 70 August on the good
ship Prince of Wales, now, alas, sunk
benath the waves. 1t Is true that our
position in August, 1941, seemed
vastly better than it was a year
earlier. in 1910. when France had
Just been beaten into the awful
prostration in which she now lies,
when we were almost entirely un-
armed in our own island and when
1t looked as If Egypt and all the
Middle East would be conquered by
the Italians, who still held Abys-
sinia and had newly driven us out Of
British Somaliland.
'The Good and the Bad"
Examined, Side by Side.
Compared with these days Of 1910.
when all the world except ourselves
thought We were down and out for
ever. the situation the President and
surveyed in August. 1941. was an
enormous improvement. Still when
you looked at it bluntly and square,
ly, with the United States a neurtal
and fiercely divided. with the Rus
sian armies falling back. as it were,
in disorder, with the German mil
itary power triumphant and un-
scathed, with the Japanese menace
assuming an uglier shape each day,
1t certainly seemed very bleak and
anxious scene.
How do matters stand now? TAX
Ing it all in all, are our chances Of
survival better or are they worse
than in August, 194l? Are we up or
down?
What has happened to the prin-
ciples of freedom and decent civiliza-
ton for which We are fighting? Are
they making headway, or are they
In greater peril?
Let us take the rough with the
smooth, let us put the good and
the bad side by side and let us try
to see exactly where we are.
The first and the greatest Of
events is that the United States is
now unitedly and Fundamentally In
the war with us.
The other day I crossed the At
lantic again to see President Roose-
welt. This time we met not only
Is friends. but as comrades stand
Ing side by side and shoulder to
shoulder in a battle for dear life
and dearer honor in the common
cause against the common foe.
When I survey and compute the
power Of the United States and its
vast resources, and feel that now
they are in 1t with US, in with the
British commonwealth of nations
Ill together, however long it lasts,
till death or victory, cannot believe