Churchill pledges help in Pacific
Says Jap cruelties ‘call for justice’
LONDON (UP) – Prime Minister Churchill today proclaimed the end of the war in Europe and pledged that Britain now would concentrate all her forces against Japan.
Britain may allow herself a “brief moment of enjoyment,” he told his countrymen in a brief radio speech, but added: “Japan with all her treachery and greed remains unsubdued. Her despicable cruelties call for justice and retribution. We must now concentrate all forces for the task ahead.
“Long live the cause of freedom! God save the King!”
King broadcasts
In a broadcast to the empire at 9 p.m. (3 p.m. ET), King George also sounded the keynote of continued war against the Japs, “a determined, cruel foe.”
Of the war just ended, he said, “In the darkest hours we knew that the enslaved and isolated peoples of Europe looked to us,” adding that “we kept faith with ourselves and with one another, we kept faith and unity with our great allies.”
Goes to Commons
Mr. Churchill broadcast from the Cabinet room at his official residence, 10 Downing St., at 3 p.m. (9 a.m. ET), then proceeded to Commons.
The House gave him an uproarious welcome. When the cheers had died down, he read to the Members the same speech he had broadcast a half-hour earlier.
He reviewed briefly the signing of the original unconditional surrender pact of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s headquarters at Reims yesterday and the arrangements for its ratification in Berlin today.
Some still resist
Despite the capitulation, he said, the Germans in some places were still resisting the Red Army.
“Should they continue to do so after midnight,” he said, “they will of course deprive themselves of the protection of the laws of war and will be attacked from all quarters by Allied troops.
“It is not surprising that on such long fronts and in the existing disorder of the enemy, the commands of the German High Command should not in every case be obeyed immediately.”
Nevertheless, he said, it did not seem best to withhold longer the news of Germany’s capitulation “nor should it prevent us from celebrating today and tomorrow as Victory-in-Europe Days.”
To pay tribute
“Today, perhaps we shall think mostly of ourselves,” he said. “Tomorrow, we shall pay particular tribute to our Russian comrades whose prowess in the field has been one of the grand contributions to general victory.
“The German war, therefore, is at an end.”
He recalled that Britain for a time stood alone against German military might, but was joined by power and resources of the United States of America.
“Finally, almost the whole world was combined against the evildoers who are now prostrate before us,” he said. “Our gratitude to our splendid Allies goes forth from all our hearts in this island and throughout the British Empire.”
Delay explained
Political and diplomatic correspondents of London morning newspapers attributed the delay in the official Allied announcement of the surrender to the insistence of President Truman and Premier Stalin.
It was generally believed Marshal Stalin particularly balked at announcing victory until diehard German forces in Czechoslovakia had agreed to the capitulation.
Mr. Churchill was expected to make a long broadcast to the world on Thursday, the fifth anniversary of the German invasion of the Lowlands.
The Ministry of Information said both today and tomorrow would be holidays in Britain.