Evening star., 1943-02-11
HaIf-Mi||ion Landed
In Africa, Churchill
Tells Commons
Invasion TO Come
As Soon as Ready,
He Declares
Continued From First Page

81
to the Black Sea" Mr.. Churchill
declared.
He said Britain and the Unite,
States-formerly peaceful countrie
now are warrior nations valkin,
in the fear of the Lord, very heavil,
armed and with an increasingly cleal
view of their salvation"
OF the war against U-boats. h,
said: Progress is being made. w,
are holding our own and more thar
holding our own"
From his first words. there wa.
an optimistic ring in the Prime Min
isters tones.
In the last six MONTHS he as
serted, "Anglo-American and i'm.
portant Canadian new building (o1
ships exceeded all the losses of the
United Nations by over one and g
Charter million tons
That is to say" ne added. "ouI
Joint feet is one and quarter NIL
lion tons bigger today than it was
six months ago
To Leave Enemy Guessing.
Mr.. Churchill said he intended to
"leave the enemy guessing at the
real figures" in the U-boat war
fare-''to let him be the victim of
his own lies"
1t was recalled that Mr.. Churchill
credited the Nazis' lack of knowl-
edge of Allied shipping for the ease
with which the Allies occupied
French North Africa.
The great American flow of ship
building is leaping up month by
month and losses in the last two
months are the lowest for over a
year he declared.
We have had hardly any losses
in our heavily escorted troop con-
voys and out of about 100000 souls
who have been moved under pro-
lection of the British Navy only
i.348 have been killed or drowned,
Rcluding the missing"
The rate of killing of U-boats has
steadily improved" he said From
January to October. 1912. inclusive,
a period of 10 months, the rate of
sinkings certain and probable was
the best we have seen so far in this
war.
But from November to the pres
ent date, a period of three months,
the rate has improved more than
half as much again.
At the same time, Mr. Churchill
added, The destructive power of
the U-boat has undergone steady
diminution. In the first year of the
var the operational U-boat ac-
counted for an average of 10 ships:
IN the second year. IL, and in the
third. 71a.
Shipping Improvement Seen.
ut is because of this that U-boat
warfare takes first place in our
thoughts. There is no need to ex-
aggerate the danger of U-boats, or
worry our seamen by harping upon
1t unduly, because the British and
American governments have known
for some time past that there were
these U-boats about, and have given
the task of overcoming them first
priority in all their plans.
This was reafhl med most ex-
plicitly by the combined STATS at
Casablanca"
Mr.. Churchill predicted that I'VE
shall be definitely better of as far
as shipping is concerned at the end
of 1943 than now"
He gave no specific figures, and
despite this optimistic picture of
the U-boat warfare he warned:
The losses we suffer at sea are
very heavy and they hamper us
and delay our operations and thus
prolong the war
Mr.. Churchill declared, however,
that the enemy cannot avert de-
feat, as he hopes, by undersea war
fare.
OF the meeting January IA to
"a with Mr.. Roosevelt, Mr.. Churchill
said:
Our inf1exible insistence on un-
conditional surrender does not mean
that we shall stain our victorious
arms by wrong and cruel treatment
Of the whole population, but JUS
tice must be done. and justice must
be stern and lmplacable.
mo vestige of Nazi or Fascist
power, no vestige of the Japanese
was-plotting machine will be left
by us when the work is done, as it
certainly will be"
The Prime Minister said the
United Nations plan for action dur
ing the next nine months comprise
"apportionment of forces as well as
their direction and weight. >"
He added that before the end of
that nine months he planned to
meet Mr. Roosevelt again.
For good or ILL.," he said, we
know exactly what it is we wish
to do.
I'VE have the united, agreed ad-
vice of our experts behind it. and
there is nothing now to be done but
to work out these schemes in detail
and put them into operation"
MI Churchill disclosed that Mr..
Roosevelt had been willing to go as
far east as Khartoum, in order that
q trlpartite conference might be
held with Premier Stain in attend
ence.
But he added that Premier Stain