From time to time Mr Churchill paused in his gigantic labours to give the House of Commons a survey of the war’s progress.
From one such speech, made on November 5th 1940, we reprint passages dealing with the situation at home, followed by a short excerpt from the Prime Minister’s moving tribute to Mr Chamberlain three days after the death of that statesman.
Since I last addressed the House on general topics about a month ago, the course of events at home has not been unexpected, or on the whole unsatisfactory.
Herr Hitler declared on September 4th that as we would not bend to his will he would wipe out our cities.
I have no doubt that when he gave the order he sincerely believed that it was in his power to carry his will into effect.
However the cities of Britain are still standing, they are quite distinctive objects in the landscape, and our people are going about their tasks with the utmost activity
Fourteen thousand civilians have been killed and 20,000 seriously wounded, nearly four fifths of them in London.
That has been the loss of life and limb.
As against this, scarcely 300 soldiers have been killed and 500 wounded.
So much for the attack on military objectives.
A Great deal of house property has been destroyed or damaged, but nothing that cannot be covered by our insurance scheme.
Very little damage has been done to our munitions and aircraft production though a certain amount of time has been lost through frequent air raid warnings.
This lost time will have to be made up as we get settled down to the new conditions.
None of the services upon which the life of our great cities depends, water, fuel, electricity, gas, sewerage, not one has broken down.
On the contrary, although there must inevitably by local shortages , all the authorities concerned with these vital functions of a modern community feel that they are on top of their job, and are feeling it increasingly as each week is passed.
Transport has been a greater difficulty, as may well be imagined, when we think of the vast numbers who go in and out of our great cities every day.
However we are getting a good grip of that, and I say with some confidence that by one method or another, and probably by many methods at the same time, the problems connected with transport will be solved in a manner tolerable to the great numbers of people who are affected.
Shelters are being multiplied and improved, and preparations on an extensive scale are in progress for mitigating the inevitable severities of the winter to those who are using the shelters.
A GRAND LIFE IF WE DO NOT WEAKEN
In these vicissitudes the bearing of our people not only in London, but in Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, and other places, has gained the unstintedadmiration of all classes throughout the British Emprie, throughout the United States and, so faras they have been allowed to hear about it , among the peoples of the captive countries .
As I was going home the other night I asked a group of steel helmeted men who stood about the door what was going on , and a deep voice in the background said, It a grand life if we do not weaken.
There is the British watchword for the winter of 1941…
Some of those very clever people who are sometimes wise after the event are now talking about “the invasion scare”.
I do not mind that, because it is true that the danger of invasion, particularly invasion by barges, has diminished with the coming winter month and the unpredictable uncertainty of the weather.
It has also been diminished by the victories of the Royal Air Force and the ever growing strength of the British Army.
When I spoke at the end of June I set forth in detail the well known difficulties which would attend the invasion of these islands, and which had been forgotten in years when we had not considered the matter at all.
At the time we had only a few brigades of well armed and well trained troops in this island.
We had no Home Guard to deal with an invader or to deal with air borne attacks behind the lines, and the Royal Air Force had not then proved itself master of our own air by daylight.
Very different is the scene today.
We have a very large Army here, improving in eguipment and training continually.
The main part of the Army is now highly mobile, and is being constantly imbued with the spirit of counter attack.
We have 1,700,000 in the Home Guard, all of whom will be in uniform by the end of this year, and nearly all of whom are in uniform at this moment.
Nearly 1,000,000 of the Home Guard have rifles or machine guns.
Nearly half of the whole Home Guard our veteran solders of the last war.
Such a force is of the highest value and importance.
A country where every street and very village bristles with loyal and resolute armed men is a country against which the kind of tactics which destroyed Dutch resistance tactics of parachutists or air borne troops in carriers or gliders fifth column activities, if there were any over here and I am not increasingly sceptical a country so defended would not be liable to be overthrown by such tactics.
Therefore I agree that the invasion danger has for the time been diminished.
FROM A SPEECH IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, NOVEMBER 12th
In paying a tribute of respect and of regard to an eminent man who has been taken from us, no one is obliged to alter the opinions which he has formed or expressed upon issues which have become a part of history……
The only guide to a man is his conscience. The only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions.
It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and upsetting of our calculations…..
It fell to Neville Chamberlain in one of the supreme crises of the world to be contradicted and cheated by a wicked man.
But what were these hopes in which he was disappointed?
What were those wishes in which he was frustrated?
What was that faith that was abused?
They were surely the most noble and benevolent instincts of the human heart , the love of peace, the toil of peace, the strife for peace, the pursuit of peace, even at great peril and certainly to the utter disdain of popularity or clamour…..
Herr Hitler protests with frantic words and gestures that he has only sought peace.
What do these ravings and outpourings count before the silence of Neville Chamberlain’s tomb?
