Almost a year has passed since the war began,
and it is natural for us, I think, to pause on our journey at
this milestone and survey the dark, wide field. It is also useful
to compare the first year of this second war against German aggression
with its forerunner a quarter of a century ago. Although this
war is in fact only a continuation of the last, very great differences
in its character are apparent. In the last war millions of men
fought by hurling enormous masses of steel at one another. "Men
and shells" was the cry, and prodigious slaughter was the
consequence. In this war nothing of this kind has yet appeared.
It is a conflict of strategy, of organization, of technical apparatus,
of science, mechanics and morale. The British casualties in the
first 12 months of the Great War amounted to 365,000. In this
war, I am thankful to say, British killed, wounded, prisoners
and missing, including civilians, do not exceed 92,000, and of
these a large proportion are alive as prisoners of war. Looking
more widely around, one may say that throughout all Europe, for
one man killed or wounded in the first year perhaps five were
killed or wounded in 1914-15.
The slaughter is only a small fraction, but the
consequences to the belligerents have been even more deadly. We
have seen great countries with powerful armies dashed out of coherent
existence in a few weeks. We have seen the-French Republic and
the renowned French Army beaten into complete and total submission
with less than the casualties which they suffered in any one of
half a dozen of the battles of 1914-18. The entire body-it might
almost seem at times the soul-of France has succumbed to physical
effects incomparably less terrible than those which were sustained
with fortitude and undaunted will power 25 years ago. Although
up to the present the loss of life has been mercifully diminished,
the decisions reached in the course of the struggle are even more
profound upon the fate of nations than anything that has ever
happened since barbaric times. Moves are made upon the scientific
and strategic boards, advantages are gained by mechanical means,
as a result of which scores of millions of men become incapable
of further resistance, or judge themselves incapable of further
resistance, and a fearful game of chess proceeds from check to
mate by which the unhappy players seem to be inexorably bound.
There is another more obvious difference from
1914. The whole of the warring nations are engaged, not only soldiers,
but the entire population, men, women and children. The fronts
are everywhere. The trenches are dug in the towns and streets.
Every village is fortified. Every road is barred. The front line
runs through the factories. The workmen are soldiers with different
weapons but the same courage. These are great and distinctive
changes from what many of us saw in the struggle of a quarter
of a century ago. There seems to be every reason to believe that
this new kind of war is well suited to the genius and the resources
of the British nation and the British Empire; and that, once we
get properly equipped and properly started, a war of this kind
will be more favorable to us than the somber mass slaughters of
the Somme and Passchendaele. If it is a case of the whole nation
fighting and suffering together, that ought to suit us, because
we are the most united of all the nations, because we entered
the war upon the national will and with our eyes open, and because
we have been nurtured in freedom and individual responsibility
and are the products, not of totalitarian uniformity, but of tolerance
and variety. If all these qualities are turned, as they are being
turned, to the arts of war, we may be able to show the enemy quite
a lot of things that they have not thought of yet. Since the Germans
drove the Jews out and lowered their technical standards, our
science is definitely ahead of theirs. Our geographical position,
the command of the sea, and the friendship of the United States
enable us to draw resources from the whole world and to manufacture
weapons of war of every kind, but especially of the superfine
kinds, on a scale hitherto practiced only by Nazi Germany.
Hitler is now sprawled over Europe. Our offensive
springs are being slowly compressed, and we must resolutely and
methodically prepare ourselves for the campaigns of 1941 and 1942.
Two or three years are not a long time, even in our short, precarious
lives. They are nothing in the history of the nation, and when
we are doing the finest thing in the world, and have the honor
to be the sole champion of the liberties of all Europe, we must
not grudge these years or weary as we toil and struggle through
them. It does not follow that our energies in future years will
be exclusively confined to defending ourselves and our possessions.
Many opportunities may lie open to amphibious power, and we must
be ready to take advantage of them. One of the ways to bring this
war to a speedy end is to convince the enemy, not by words, but
by deeds, that we have both the will and the means, not only to
go on indefinitely, but to strike heavy and unexpected blows.
The road to victory may not be so long as we expect. But we have
no right to count upon this. Be it long or short, rough or smooth,
we mean to reach our journey's end.
It is our intention to maintain and enforce a
strict blockade, not only of Germany, but of Italy, France, and
all the other countries that have fallen into the German power.
I read in the papers that Herr Hitler has also proclaimed a strict
blockade of the British Islands. No one can complain of that.
I remember the Kaiser doing it in the last war. What indeed would
be a matter of general complaint would be if we were to prolong
the agony of all Europe by allowing food to come in to nourish
the Nazis and aid their war effort, or to allow food to go in
to the subjugated peoples, which certainly would be pillaged off
them by their Nazi conquerors.
There have been many proposals, founded on the
highest motives, that food should be allowed to pass the blockade
for the relief of these populations. I regret that we must refuse
these requests. The Nazis declare that they have created a new
unified economy in Europe. They have repeatedly stated that they
possess ample reserves of food and that they can feed their captive
peoples. In a German broadcast on 27th June it was said that while
Mr. Hoover's plan for relieving France, Belgium and Holland deserved
commendation, the German forces had already taken the necessary
steps. We know that in Norway when the German troops went in,
there were food supplies to last for a year. We know that Poland,
though not a rich country, usually produces sufficient food for
her people. Moreover, the other countries which Herr Hitler has
invaded all held considerable stocks when the Germans entered
and are themselves, in many cases, very substantial food producers.
If all this food is not available now, it can only be because
it has been removed to feed the people of Germany and to give
them increased rations-for a change-during the last few months.
At this season of the year and for some months to come, there
is the least chance of scarcity as the harvest has just been gathered
in. The only agencies which can create famine in any part of Europe,
now and during the coming winter, will be German exaction's or
German failure to distribute the supplies which they command.
There is another aspect. Many of the most valuable
foods are essential to the manufacture of vital war material.
Fats are used to make explosives. Potatoes make the alcohol for
motor spirit. The plastic materials now so largely used in the
construction of aircraft are made of milk. If the Germans use
these commodities to help them to bomb our women and children,
rather than to feed the populations who produce them, we may be
sure that imported foods would go the same way, directly or indirectly,
or be employed to relieve the enemy of the responsibilities he
has so wantonly assumed. Let Hitler bear his responsibilities
to the full, and let the peoples of Europe who groan beneath his
yoke aid in every way the coming of the day when that yoke will
be broken. Meanwhile, we can and we will arrange in advance for
the speedy entry of food into any part of the enslaved area, when
this part has been wholly cleared of German forces, and has genuinely
regained its freedom. We shall do our best to encourage the building
up of reserves of food all over the world, so that there will
always be held up before the eyes of the peoples of Europe, including-I
say deliberately-the German and Austrian peoples, the certainty
that the shattering of the Nazi power will bring to them all immediate
food, freedom and peace.
Rather more than a quarter of a year has passed
since the new Government came into power in this country. What
a cataract of disaster has poured out upon us since then! The
trustful Dutch overwhelmed; their beloved and respected Sovereign
driven into exile; the peaceful city of Rotterdam the scene of
a massacre as hideous and brutal as anything in the Thirty Years'
War; Belgium invaded and beaten down; our own fine Expeditionary
Force, which King Leopold called to his rescue, cut off and almost
captured, escaping as it seemed only by a miracle and with the
loss of all its equipment; our Ally, France, out; Italy in against
us; all France in the power of the enemy, all its arsenals and
vast masses of military material converted or convertible to the
enemy's use; a puppet Government set up at Vichy which may at
any moment be forced to become our foe; the whole western seaboard
of Europe from the North Cape to the Spanish frontier in German
hands; all the ports, all the airfields on this immense front
employed against us as potential springboards of invasion. Moreover,
the German air power, numerically so far outstripping ours, has
been brought so close to our Island that what we used to dread
greatly has come to pass and the hostile bombers not only reach
our shores in a few minutes and from many directions, but can
be escorted by their fighting aircraft. Why, Sir, if we had been
confronted at the beginning of May with such a prospect, it would
have seemed incredible that at the end of a period of horror and
disaster, or at this point in a period of horror and disaster,
we should stand erect, sure of ourselves, masters of our fate
and with the conviction of final victory burning unquenchable
in our hearts. Few would have believed we could survive; none
would have believed that we should today not only feel stronger
but should actually be stronger than we have ever been before.
Let us see what has happened on the other side
of the scales. The British nation and the British Empire, finding
themselves alone, stood undismayed against disaster. No one flinched
or wavered; nay, some who formerly thought of peace, now think
only of war. Our people are united and resolved, as they have
never been before. Death and ruin have become small things compared
with the shame of defeat or failure in duty. We cannot tell what
lies ahead. It may be that even greater ordeals lie before us.
We shall face whatever is coming to us. We are sure of ourselves
and of our cause, and that is the supreme fact which has emerged
in these months of trial.
Meanwhile, we have not only fortified our hearts
but our Island. We have rearmed and rebuilt our armies in a degree
which would have been deemed impossible a few months ago. We have
ferried across the Atlantic, in the month of July, thanks to our
friends over there, an immense mass of munitions of all kinds:
cannon, rifles, machine guns, cartridges and shell, all safely
landed without the loss of a gun or a round. The output of our
own factories, working as they have never worked before, has poured
forth to the troops. The whole British Army is at home. More than
2,000,000 determined men have rifles and bayonets in their hands
tonight, and three-quarters of them are in regular military formations.
We have never had armies like this in our Island in time of war.
The whole Island bristles against invaders, from the sea or from
the air. As I explained to the House in the middle of June, the
stronger our Army at home, the larger must the invading expedition
be, and the larger the invading expedition, the less difficult
will be the task of the Navy in detecting its assembly and in
intercepting and destroying it in passage; and the greater also
would be the difficulty of feeding and supplying the invaders
if ever they landed, in the teeth of continuous naval and air
attack on their communications. All this is classical and venerable
doctrine. As in Nelson's day, the maxim holds, "Our first
line of defence is the enemy's ports." Now air reconnaissance
and photography have brought to an old principle a new and potent
aid.
Our Navy is far stronger than it was at the beginning
of the war. The great flow of new construction set on foot at
the outbreak is now beginning to come in. We hope our friends
across the ocean will send us a timely reinforcement to bridge
the gap between the peace flotillas of 1939 and the war flotillas
of 1941. There is no difficulty in sending such aid. The seas
and oceans are open. The U-boats are contained. The magnetic mine
is, up to the present time, effectively mastered. The merchant
tonnage under the British flag, after a year of unlimited U-boat
war, after eight months of intensive mining attack, is larger
than when we began. We have, in addition, under our control at
least 4,000,000 tons of shipping from the captive countries which
has taken refuge here or in the harbors of the Empire. Our stocks
of food of all kinds are far more abundant than in the days of
peace, and a large and growing program of food production is on
foot.
Why do I say all this? Not, assuredly, to boast;
not, assuredly, to give the slightest countenance to complacency.
The dangers we face are still enormous, but so are our advantages
and resources. I recount them because the people have a right
to know that there are solid grounds for the confidence which
we feel, and that we have good reason to believe ourselves capable,
as I said in a very dark hour two months ago, of continuing the
war "if necessary alone, if necessary for years." I
say it also because the fact that the British Empire stands invincible,
and that Nazidom is still being resisted, will kindle again the
spark of hope in the breasts of hundreds of millions of downtrodden
or despairing men and women throughout Europe, and far beyond
its bounds, and that from these sparks there will presently come
cleansing and devouring flame.
The great air battle which has been in progress
over this Island for the last few weeks has recently attained
a high intensity. It is too soon to attempt to assign limits either
to its scale or to its duration. We must certainly expect that
greater efforts will be made by the enemy than any he has so far
put forth. Hostile air fields are still being developed in France
and the Low Countries, and the movement of squadrons and material
for attacking us is still proceeding. It is quite plain that Herr
Hitler could not admit defeat in his air attack on Great Britain
without sustaining most serious injury. If after all his boastings
and bloodcurdling threats and lurid accounts trumpeted round the
world of the damage he has inflicted, of the vast numbers of our
Air Force he has shot down, so he says, with so little loss to
himself; if after tales of the panic-stricken British crushed
in their holes cursing the plutocratic Parliament which has led
them to such a plight-if after all this his whole air onslaught
were forced after a while tamely to peter out, the Führer's
reputation for veracity of statement might be seriously impugned.
We may be sure, therefore, that he will continue as long as he
has the strength to do so, and as long as any preoccupation's
he may have in respect of the Russian Air Force allow him to do
so.
On the other hand, the conditions and course
of the fighting have so far been favourable to us. I told the
House two months ago that, whereas in France our fighter aircraft
were want to inflict a loss of two or three to one upon the Germans,
and in the fighting at Dunkirk,
which was a kind of no-man's-land, a loss of about three or four
to one, we expected that in an attack on this Island we should
achieve a larger ratio. This has certainly come true. It must
also be remembered that all the enemy machines and pilots which
are shot down over our Island, or over the seas which surround
it, are either destroyed or captured; whereas a considerable proportion
of our machines, and also of our pilots, are saved, and soon again
in many cases come into action.
A vast and admirable system of salvage, directed
by the Ministry of Aircraft Production, ensures the speediest
return to the fighting line of damaged machines, and the most
provident and speedy use of all the spare parts and material.
At the same time the splendid-nay, astounding-increase in the
output and repair of British aircraft and engines which Lord Beaverbrook
has achieved by a genius of organization and drive, which looks
like magic, has given us overflowing reserves of every type of
aircraft, and an ever-mounting stream of production both in quantity
and quality. The enemy is, of course, far more numerous than we
are. But our new production already, as I am advised, largely
exceeds his, and the American production is only just beginning
to flow in. It is a fact, as I see from my daily returns, that
our bomber and fighter strength now, after all this fighting,
are larger than they have ever been. We believe that we shall
be able to continue the air struggle indefinitely and as long
as the enemy pleases, and the longer it continues the more rapid
will be our approach, first towards that parity, and then into
that superiority, in the air upon which in a large measure the
decision of the war depends.
The gratitude of every home in our Island, in
our Empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes
of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by
odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger,
are turning the tide of the World War by their prowess and b~
their devotion. Never
in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to
so few. All hearts go out to the fighter pilots, whose
brilliant actions we see with our own eyes day after day; but
we must never forget that all the time, night after night, month
after month, our bomber squadrons travel far into Germany, find
their targets in the darkness by the highest navigational skill,
aim their attacks, often under the heaviest fire, often with serious
loss, with deliberate careful discrimination, and inflict shattering
blows upon the whole of the technical and war-making structure
of the Nazi power. On no part of the Royal Air Force does the
weight of the war fall more heavily than on the daylight bombers,
who will play an invaluable part in the case of invasion and whose
unflinching zeal it has been necessary in the meanwhile on numerous
occasions to restrain.
We are able to verify the results of bombing
military targets in Germany, not only by reports which reach us
through many sources, but also, of course, by photography. I have
no hesitation in saying that this process of bombing the military
industries and communications of Germany and the air bases and
storage depots from which we are attacked, which process will
continue upon an ever-increasing scale until the end of the war,
and may in another year attain dimensions hitherto undreamed of,
affords one at least of the most certain, if not the shortest,
of all the roads to victory. Even if the Nazi legions stood triumphant
on the Black Sea, or indeed upon the Caspian, even if Hitler was
at the gates of India, it would profit him nothing if at the same
time the entire economic and scientific apparatus of German war
power lay shattered and pulverized at home.
The fact that the invasion of this Island upon
a large scale has become a far more difficult operation with every
week that has passed since we saved our Army at Dunkirk, and our
very great preponderance of sea power enable us to turn our eyes
and to turn our strength increasingly towards the Mediterranean
and against that other enemy who, without the slightest provocation,
coldly and deliberately, for greed and gain, stabbed France in
the back in the moment of her agony, and is now marching against
us in Africa. The defection of France has, of course, been deeply
damaging to our position in what is called, somewhat oddly, the
Middle East. In the defence of Somaliland, for instance, we had
counted upon strong French forces attacking the Italians from
Jibuti. We had counted also upon the use of the French naval and
air bases in the Mediterranean, and particularly upon the North
African shore. We had counted upon the French Fleet. Even though
metropolitan France was temporarily overrun, there was no reason
why the French Navy, substantial parts of the French Army, the
French Air Force and the French Empire overseas should not have
continued the struggle at our side.
Shielded by overwhelming sea power, possessed
of invaluable strategic bases and of ample funds, France might
have remained one of the great combatants in the struggle. By
so doing, France would have preserved the continuity of her life,
and the French Empire might have advanced with the British Empire
to the rescue of the independence and integrity of the French
Motherland. In our own case, if we had been put in the terrible
position of France, a contingency now happily impossible, although,
of course, it would have been the duty of all war leaders to fight
on here to the end, it would also have been their duty, as I indicated
in my speech of 4th June, to provide as far as possible for the
Naval security of Canada and our Dominions and to make sure they
had the means to carry on the struggle from beyond the oceans.
Most of the other countries that have been overrun by Germany
for the time being have persevered valiantly and faithfully. The
Czechs, the Poles, the Norwegians, the Dutch, the Belgians are
still in the field, sword in hand, recognized by Great Britain
and the United States as the sole representative authorities and
lawful Governments of their respective States.
That France alone should lie prostrate at this
moment is the crime, not of a great and noble nation, but of what
are called "the men of Vichy." We have profound sympathy
with the French people. Our old comradeship with France is not
dead. In General de Gaulle and his gallant band, that comradeship
takes an effective form. These free Frenchmen have been condemned
to death by Vichy, but the day will come, as surely as the Sun
will rise tomorrow, when their names will be held in honor, and
their names will be graven in stone in the streets and villages
of a France restored in a liberated Europe to its full freedom
and its ancient fame. But this conviction which I feel of the
future cannot affect the immediate problems which confront us
in the Mediterranean and in Africa. It had been decided some time
before the beginning of the war not to defend the Protectorate
of Somaliland. That policy was changed in the early months of
the war. When the French gave in, and when our small forces there,
a few battalions, a few guns, were attacked by all the Italian
troops, nearly two divisions, which had formerly faced the French
at Jibuti, it was right to withdraw our detachments, virtually
intact, for action elsewhere. Far larger operations no doubt impend
in the Middle East theater, and I shall certainly not attempt
to discuss or prophesy about their probable course. We have large
armies and many means of reinforcing them. We have the complete
sea command of the eastern Mediterranean. We intend to do our
best to give a good account of ourselves, and to discharge faithfully
and resolutely all our obligations and duties in that quarter
of the world. More than that I do not think the House would wish
me to say at the present time.
A good many people have written to me to ask
me to make on this occasion a fuller statement of our war aims,
and of the kind of peace we wish to make after the war, than is
contained in the very considerable declaration which was made
early in the autumn. Since then we have made common cause with
Norway, Holland and Belgium. We have recognized the Czech Government
of Dr. Benes, and we have told General de Gaulle that our success
will carry with it the restoration of France. I do not think it
would be wise at this moment, while the battle rages and the war
is still perhaps only in its earlier stage, to embark upon elaborate
speculations about the future shape which should be given to Europe
or the new securities which must be arranged to spare mankind
the miseries of a third World War. The ground is not new, it has
been frequently traversed and explored, and many ideas are held
about it in common by all good men, and all free men. But before
we can undertake the task of rebuilding we have not only to be
convinced ourselves, but we have to convince all other countries
that the Nazi tyranny is going to be finally broken.
The right to guide the course of world history
is the noblest prize of victory. We are still toiling up the hill;
we have not yet reached the crest-line of it; we cannot survey
the landscape or even imagine what its condition will be when
that longed-for morning comes. The task which lies before us immediately
is at once more practical, more simple and more stern. I hope-indeed,
I pray-that we shall not be found unworthy of our victory if after
toil and tribulation it is granted to us. For the rest, we have
to gain the victory. That is our task.
There is, however, one direction in which we
can see a little more clearly ahead. We have to think not only
for ourselves but for the lasting security of the cause and principles
for which we are fighting and of the long future of the British
Commonwealth of Nations. Some months ago we came to the conclusion
that the interests of the United States and of the British Empire
both required that the United States should have facilities for
the naval and air defense of the Western Hemisphere against the
attack of a Nazi power which might have acquired temporary but
lengthy control of a large part of Western Europe and its formidable
resources. We had therefore decided spontaneously, and without
being asked or offered any inducement, to inform the Government
of the United States that we would be glad to place such defense
facilities at their disposal by leasing suitable sites in our
Transatlantic possessions for their greater security against the
unmeasured dangers of the future. The principle of association
of interests for common purposes between Great Britain and the
United States had developed even before the war. Various agreements
had been reached about certain small islands in the Pacific Ocean
which had become important as air fueling points. In all this
line of thought we found ourselves in very close harmony with
the Government of Canada.
Presently we learned that anxiety was also felt
in the United States about the air and naval defense of their
Atlantic seaboard, and President Roosevelt has recently made it
clear that he would like to discuss with us, and with the Dominion
of Canada and with Newfoundland, the development of American naval
and air facilities in Newfoundland and in the West Indies. There
is, of course, no question of any transference of sovereignty-that
has never been suggested-or of any action being taken without
the consent or against the wishes of the various Colonies concerned;
but for our part, His Majesty's Government are entirely willing
to accord defense facilities to the United States on a 99 years'
leasehold basis, and we feel sure that our interests no less than
theirs, and the interests of the Colonies themselves and of Canada
and Newfoundland, will be served thereby. These are important
steps. Undoubtedly this process means that these two great organizations
of the English-speaking democracies, the British Empire and the
United States, will have to be somewhat mixed up together in some
of their affairs for mutual and general one can stop it. Like
the Mississippi, it just keeps rolling alone. Let it roll. Let
it roll on full flood, view the process with any misgivings. I
could not stop it if I wished; no one can stop it. Like the Mississippi,
it just keeps rolling alone. Let it roll. Let it roll on full
flood, inexorable, irresistible, benignant, to broader lands and
better days.
