Evening star., 1943-09-21
Churchill Declares
No Time Need|ess|v
Lost in Italy Drive
Continued From First Page.)

Continued From First Page.)
Roosevelt Churchill Stain confer.
ence, the Prime Minister said:
mo meeting during this war coulo
carry with it SO much significance
for the future of the world as 6
meeting between the heads of the
three governments, for without close
cordial and lasting association be-
tween Soviet Russia and their great
allies we might find ourselves al
the end of the war only to have en-
tered upon period of deepning con-
fusion"
Mr.. Churchill's speech, longest ir
his career as prime minister, LASTED
two hours and seven minutes. He
spoke for an hour and Is minutes
stopped for lunch, and then picked
up where he left off.
The Prime Minister, appearing be-
fore the House of Commons in his
first full-scale report on the course
of the worldwide struggle since his
historic conference with President
Roosevelt at Quebec, spoke out
sharply against those who had ac-
cused the Allied leadership of bun
Cling in Italy.
The date on which the Italian in
vasion had originally been planned,
he told the House, was September Is,
but it was moved up "as the result
of decisions taken before the fall of
Mussolini, and what has taken place
In any case would have happened
in Italy at the earliest possible mo-
ment."
Surrender Was Windfall.
THE Italian surrender was a
windfall," he said, but it had moth
ing to do with the date of harvesting
the orchard"
Mr.. Churchill went to the House
with one of the longest speeches of
his career. He began at noon and
broke off an hour and quarter later
for lunch, after which he resumed
speaking.
He termed the Naples invasion the
most daring amphibious operation
We have yet launched or which
think ever has been launched on a
similar scale in the war;
He explained that the Allies could
not have gone farther north unless
they had dispensed with aid from
shorebased aircraft-a fact which
the Germans must have known.
Even in landing at Naples, he said.
Allied forces were dependent ito an
important extent" on carrier-borne
aircraft in which the Allies are be-
coming stronger and stronger.
Calls Claim Ill-Founded.
The claim that Hitler was given
20 days to move in on Italy, the
Prime Minister said firmly. lis as ILL
founded iE fact as it is wounding to
those bereaved. The timing of our
main attack in Italy was fixed with
out the slightest reference to the
attitude of the italian government. /"
Mr.. Churchill's calm description
OF the minute and exact planning
that had gone into the Italian cam
paign-it was an answer to critics
IN the same forum where he had
met and mastered so many previous
criticisms-presented the picture Of
an Allied hand in Italy far harder
than had previously been known.
I'VE did not insist upon having
Mussolini handed over to us be-
forehand," he said, for the simple
reason that it would have tipped off
the Germans of Badoglios plan to
make peace at a moment when the
Italians were IN the position of
having still to appear as allies of
Germany"
Too, his disclosure that precise
measures had been taken to keep
Mussolini in Allied hands-measures
extending to orders for the former
premier's execution if necessary
suggested something far removed
from the sentimental approach to
the duce which some had accused
the Allies OF making.
Guards Failed in Duty.
Premier Pietro Badoglios govern
ment, Mr.. Churchill explained, had
made preparations to hold Musso-
lini but were not prepared against
the one method Hitler attempted
and brought off-+"a heavy para
chute descent at that particular
point fGran Sasso)."
They had one card up their
sleeves" he added calmly. The
Caribinieri guards had orders to
shoot Mussolini II any attempt was
made to rescue him, but they failed
in their duty"
Mr.. Churchill declared that the
Mediterranean campaign is not "a
substitute for direct attack across
the English Channel on the Ger
mans in France and the Low Coun-
tries'-that he has never regarded
1t as such.
'On the contrary" he said. the
opening OF this new front in the
Mediterranean was always in
tended to be an essential prelimi-
nary to the main attack upon Ger
many and her ring of susjugated
and satellite states
The Prime Minister disclosed,
however, that he and President
Roosevelt set Italy's elimination
from the war as their principal OBJ
jective when they met in Washing
ton last May and added that no one
would have expected it to have
been SO rapidly achieved"
Points to Bomb Destruction.
Turning to the air war, the Prime
Minister announced that the weight
OF bombs dropped on Germany in
the last year was three times that
OF the preceding IL months and that
the United States and British air.
craft supply now exceeds that of
Germany by more than to l.
Saying that the almost total de-
struction of German war centers
was continuing on a great scale
Mr.. Churchill disclosed that the per-
centage of plane losses to the Raj
In the first eight months of 1943 was
less than the same period last year
and that the morale of the crews
was consequently higher.
He also announced that during
the four months ending September
18 not single merchant vessel was