The Pittsburgh Press (May 14, 1943)
Churchill says –
Many drives to crush Axis being mapped
Armies in Britain will battle on continent, Premier declares
Washington (UP) –
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said today that he and President Roosevelt and their military experts are planning many future campaigns against the Axis in different parts of the world.
He said in an address to his homeland which was also broadcast in this country:
It is no good only having one march ahead laid out.
March after march must be planned as far as human eye can set.
Design and forethought must be our guides and heralds. We owe it to the fighting troops. We owe it to the vast communities we are leading out of the dark planes; we owe it to heroic Russia, to long-tormented China; we owe it to the captive and enslaved nations who beckon us on through their prison bars.
Strong armies ready
Pointing out that strong armies are assembled in Britain and that the island “is the assembly base for the United States armies of liberation coming across the broad Atlantic,” Mr. Churchill added:
But this is not the end. We must prepare for the time which is approaching and will surely come, when the bulk of these armies will have advanced across the seas into deadly grapple on the continent.
Mr. Churchill said that the planning was now being done “well ahead of the armies who are moving swiftly forward.”
His words seemed to confirm the general belief here that Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill are now formulating strategy for operations that will follow the initial invasion of Europe. They are believed to be paying particular attention to campaigns to get at the Japanese homeland.
Message to Chiang
Earlier today, he sent a message to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek assuring the Chinese leader that “the day will come” when the:
…arms of the United Nations… will surely drive the Japanese invader from the soil of China.
Mr. Churchill’s broadcast from the White House was made in honor of the third anniversary of the British Home Guard, which was formed as an answer to the threat of German invasion.
He said:
These are great days. They are like the says in Lord Chatham’s time of which it was said you had to get up very early in the morning not to miss some news of victory. Ah! But victory is no conclusion. Even final victory will open up a new and happier field of valiant endeavor.
Praises Home Guard
Most of the address was given over to praise for the work of the Home Guard, tracing their history from the dark days of 1940 when:
…we hardly dared to fire a round for practice, so great was the stringency.
But, obviously seeking to counteract any feeling of complacency despite the British Isles’ greatly-improved condition, Mr. Churchill added:
Let me assure you of this, that until Hitler and Hitlerism are beaten into unconditional surrender, the danger of invasion will never pass away.
He said that:
Just in the same way as the Home Guard render the regular forces mobile against an invader, so the Home Guard must become capable of taking a great deal of the burden of home defense on themselves and thus setting free the bulk of our trained troops for the assault on the strongholds of the enemy’s power.
U.S. sent timely succor
He expressed appreciation of the U.S. action in giving “precious and timely succor” by sending a million rifles, 1,000 field guns and ammunition for the Home Guard.
Eisenhower writes
Mr. Churchill received a message from Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, commander-in-chief of Allied forces in Africa, promising that:
This army will continue to pound until Hitlerism has been exterminated from the earth.
Gen. Eisenhower’s message replied to congratulations he had received from Mr. Churchill.
The White House also disclosed that Mr. Churchill had conferred with Secretary of State Cordell Hull, President Edvard Beneš of Czechoslovakia, Chinese Foreign Minister T. V. Soong and Australian Foreign Minister Herbert Evatt. These conferences were in addition to Mr. Churchill’s almost constant talks with the President and members of their respective war staffs.
House, their staff chiefs are conferring elsewhere in the capital. The White House still declined to give out the names of the American conferees.
Mr. Churchill and Lord Leathers, the British Minister of War Transport, are expected to meet soon, possibly today, with Adm. Emory S. Land, War Shipping Administrator.
Canadian to confer
Canadian Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie King will joi9n the conferences for a brief period next week and it was believed possible that Mme. Chiang Kai-shek, wife of the Chinese Generalissimo, would see Mr. Churchill here.
One of the high spots of Mr. Churchill’s visit will come next Wednesday when he speaks before a joint session of Congress.
Mr. Churchill came to the United States this time by ship, with the last leg of the trip to Washington being made by train.
The White House permitted that disclosure late last night, two days after Mr. Churchill’s arrival. He was apparently on the high seas when the Allied armies smashed through to victory last Friday at Bizerte and Tunis.