Post-War Councils on World Problems

A FOUR YEAR PLAN FOR ENGLAND

By WINSTON CHURCHILL, Prime Minister of Great Britain,

Broadcast from London over BBC, March 21, 1943

Vital Speeches of the Day, Vol. IX, pp. 386-391.

LET me first of ail thank the very great numbers of people who have made kind inquiries about me during my recent illness. Although for a week I had a fairly stiff dose of fever which, but for modern science, might have had awkward consequences, I wish to make it clear that I never for a moment had to relinquish the responsible direction of affairs. I followed attentively all the time what was happening in Parliament and the lively discussions on our home affairs when peace comes.

It was very clear to me that a good many people were so much impressed by the favorable turn in our fortunes which has marked the last six months that they have jumped to the conclusion that the war will soon be over and that we shall soon all be able to get back to the politics and party fights of peacetime.

I am not able to share these sanguine hopes, and my earnest advice to you is to concentrate even more zealously upon the war effort and, if possible, not to take your eye off the ball even for a moment. If tonight, contrary to this advice, I turn aside from the course of the war and deal with some post-war and domestic issues it is only because I hope that by so doing I may be able to simplify and mollify political divergencies and enable all our political forces to march forward to the main objectives in unity and, so far as possible, in step.

Warns Against Premature Pledges

First of all, we must beware of attempts to over-persuade or even to coerce His Majesty's Government to bind themselves or their unknown successors in conditions which no one can foresee and which may be years ahead, to impose great new expenditures on the State without any relation to the circumstances which might prevail at that time and to make them pledge themselves to particular schemes without relation to other extremely important aspects of our post-war needs.

The business of proposing expenditure rests ultimately with the responsible government of the day and it is their duty and their duty alone to propose to Parliament any new charges upon the public and also to propose in the annual budgets the means of raising the necessary funds.

The world is coming increasingly to admire our British Parliamentary system and ideas. It is contrary to those ideas that Ministers or members should become pledge-bound delegates. They are a band of men who undertake certain honorable duties and they would be dishonored if they allowed their right and duty to serve the public as well as possible on any given occasion to be prejudiced by the enforced premature contraction of obligations.

Nothing would be easier for me than to make any number of promises to get the immediate response of cheap cheers and glowing leading articles. I am not in any need to go about making promises in order to win political support or to be allowed to continue in office. It was on a grim and bleak basis that I undertook my present task and on that basis I have been given loyalty and support such as no Prime Minister has ever received.

Refuses to "Tell Fairy-Tales"

I cannot express my feeling of gratitude to the nation for their kindness to me and for the trust and confidence they have placed in me during the long, dark and disappointing periods.

I am absolutely determined not to falsify or mock that confidence by making promises without regard to whether they can be performed or not. At my time of life I have no personal ambitions, no future to provide for. And I feel I can truthfully say that I only wish to do my duty by thewhole mass of the nation and of the British Empire as long as I am thought to be of any use for that.

Therefore I tell you round your firesides tonight that I am resolved not to give or make all kinds of promises and tell all kinds of fairy-tales to you who have trusted me and gone with me so far and marched through the valley of the shadow till we have reached the upland regions on which we now stand with firmly planted feet.

However, it is our duty to peer through the mists of the future to the end of the war and to try our utmost to be prepared by ceaseless effort and forethought for the kind of situations which are likely to occur. Speaking under every reserve and not attempting to prophesy, I can imagine that some time next year—but it may well be the year after—we might beat Hitler. By which I mean beat him and his powers of evil into death, dust and ashes.

Then we shall immediately proceed to transport all the necessary additional forces and apparatus to the other side of the world to punish the greedy, cruel empire of Japan, to rescue China from her long torment, to free our own territory and that of our Dutch allies and to drive the Japanese menace forever from Australian, New Zealand and Indian shores. That will be our first and supreme task and nothing must lure us from it.

"The Grand Climax of the War"

Nevertheless, in my opinion, the moment when Hitler is beaten and Germany and Italy are prostrate will mark the grand climax of war and that will be the time to make a new declaration upon the task before us. We and our allies will have accomplished one great task. And Nazi tyranny and Prussian militarism, which threatened to engulf the whole world and against which we stood alone for a fateful year—these curses will have been swept from the face of the earth.

If I should be spared to see that day and should be needed at the helm at that time I shall then, with the assent of the Cabinet, propose a new task to the British nation. The war against Japan will demand a very different arrangement of our forces from what it is at present. There will certainly be large numbers of British and also no doubt United States soldiers whom it will not be physically possible to employ across the vast distances and poor communications of the Japanese war.

There will certainly be large numbers of men not only abroad but at home who will have to be brought back to their families and to their jobs or to other equally good jobs. For all these, after full provision has been made for the garrisoning of guilty countries, return to something like home and freedom will be their hearts' desire. However vigorously the war against Japan is prosecuted, there will certainly be a partial demobilization following on the defeat of Hitler and this will raise most difficult and intricate problems, and we are taking care in our arrangements to avoid the mistakes which were so freely committed last time.

Of course these ideas may be completely falsified by events. It may be that Japan will collapse before Hitler, in which case quite another layout will be necessary. As, however, many people wish ardently to discuss the future, I adopt for this purpose tonight what seems to me the most likely situation.

On this assumption, it would be our hope that the United Nations, headed by the three great victorious powers, the British Commonwealth of Nations, the United States and Soviet Russia, should immediately begin to confer upon the future world organization, which is to be our safeguard against further wars, by effectually disarming and keeping

disarmed the guilty States by bringing to justice the grand criminals and their accomplices and by securing the return to devastated and subjugated countries of the mechanical resources and artistic treasures of which they have been pillaged.

Looks to Council of Europe

We shall also have a heavy task in trying to avert widespread famine in some at least of the ruined regions. We must hope and pray that the unity of the three leading victorious powers will be worthy of their supreme responsibility and that they will think not only of their own welfare but of the welfare and future of all. One can imagine that under a world institution embodying or representing the United Nations, and some day all nations, there should come into being a Council of Europe and a Council of Asia.

As according to the forecast I am outlining the war against Japan will still be raging, it is upon the creation of the Council of Europe and the settlement of Europe that the first practical task will be centered. Now this is a stupendous business. In Europe lie most of the causes which have led to these two world wars. In Europe dwell the historic parent races from whom our Western civilization has been so largely derived. I believe myself to be what is called a good European and I should deem it a noble task to take part in reviving the fertile genius and in restoring the true greatness of Europe.

I hope we shall not lightly cast aside all the immense work which was accomplished by the creation of the League of Nations. Certainly we must take as our foundation of the lofty conception of freedom, law and morality which was the spirit of the League. We must try—I am speaking of course, only for ourselves—we must try to make the Council of Europe, or whatever it may be called, into a really effective league with all the strongest forces concerned woven into its texture with a high court to adjust disputes and with forces, armed forces, national or international or both, held ready to enforce these decisions and prevent renewed aggression and the preparation of future wars.

Suggests Confederations

Any one can see that this Council, when created, must eventually embrace the whole of Europe and that all the main branches of the European family must some day be partners in it. What is to happen to the large number of small nations whose rights and interests must be safeguarded? Here let me ask what would be thought of an army that consisted only of battalions and brigades and which never formed any of the larger and high organizations like army corps. It would soon get mopped up. It would therefore seem to me, at any rate, worthy of patient study that side by side with the great powers there should be a number of groupings of states or confederations which would express themselves through their own chosen representatives, the whole making a council of great states and groups of states.

It is my earnest hope, though I can hardly expect to see it fulfilled in my lifetime, that we shall achieve the largest common measure of the integrated life of Europe that is possible without destroying the individual characteristics and traditions of its many ancient and historic races. All this will, 1 believe, be found to harmonize with the high permanent interests of Britain, the United States and Russia. It certainly cannot be accomplished without their cordial and concerted agreement and direct participation. Thus and thus only will the glory of Europe rise again,I only mention these matters to you to show you the magnitude of the task that will lie before us in Europe alone.

Nothing could be more foolish at this stage than to plunge into details and try to prescribe the exact groupings of States or lay down precise machinery for their cooperation or still more to argue about frontiers, now while the war even in the West has not yet reached its full height, while the struggle with U-boats is raging and when the war in the Far East is only in its first phase.

This does not mean that many tentative discussions are not taking place between the great nations concerned or that the whole vast problem of European destiny—for that is what I am speaking of now—is not the subject of ceaseless heart searchings.

We must remember, however, that we in Britain and the British Commonwealth of Nations, although almost a world in ourselves, would have to reach agreements with great and friendly equals and also to respect and have a care to the rights of weaker and smaller States, and that it will not be given to any one nation to achieve the full satisfaction of its individual wishes.

relationship of nations in order that the ruin of our wealth may be rapidly repaired, in order that employment and production shall be at a high level, and that goods and services shall be interchanged between man and man and between one nation and another under the best conditions and on the largest scale.

The difficulties which will confront us will take all our highest qualities to overcome. Let me, however, say straight-away that my faith in the vigor, ingenuity and resilience of the British race is invincible.

Difficulties mastered are opportunities won. The day of Hitler's downfall will be a bright one for our country and for all mankind. Bells will clash the peal of victory and hope and we will march forward together, encouraged and invigorated and still, I trust, generally united upon our further journey.

Advocates British 4-Year Plan

I have said enough, however, I am sure, to show you at least in outline the mystery, the peril and, I will add, the splendor of this vast sphere of practical action into which we shall have to leap once the hideous spell of Nazi tyranny has been broken.

Coming nearer home, we shall have to consider at the same time how the inhabitants of this island are going to get their living at this stage in the world story and how they are going to maintain and progressively improve their previous standards of life and labor.

I am very much attracted to the idea that we should make and proclaim what might be called the four-year plan. Four years seems to me to be the right length for the period of transition and reconstruction which will follow the downfall of Hitler.

We have five-year Parliaments, and a four-year plan would give time for the preparation of a second plan. This four-year plan would cover five or six large measures of a practical character which must all have been the subject of prolonged careful, energetic preparations beforehand and which fit together into a general scheme.

When this plan has been shaped it will have to be presented to the country, either by a national government, formally representative as this one is of the three parties in the State, or by a national government comprising the best men in all parties who are willing to serve. I cannot tell how these matters will settle themselves. But by 1944 our present Parliament will have lived nine years, and by 1945 ten years, and as soon as the defeat of Germany has removed the danger now at our throats and a register can be compiled and other necessary arrangements made, a new House of Commons must be freely chosen by the whole electorate, including, of course, the armed forces, wherever they may be.

Stresses Difficulties Ahead

Thus, whoever is burdened with the responsibility of conducting affairs will have a clear policy and will be able to speak and act at least in the name of an effective and resolute majority.

From what I have already said you will realize how very difficult and anxious this period will be and how much depends not only on our own action but on the action of other very powerful countries. This applies not only to the carrying to the conclusion of the war against Japan but also to the disarming of the guilty and to the settlement of Europe. Not only to the arrangements for the prevention of further wars but also to the whole economic process and

Would Extend Insurance

I personally am very keen that the scheme for amalgamation and extension of our incomparable insurance system should have a leading place in our four-year plan.

I have been prominently connected with all these schemes of national compulsory organized thrift from the time when I brought my friend Sir William Beveridge into the public service thirty-five years ago when I was creating the labor exchanges on which he was a great authority, and when with Sir Hubert Llewellyn Smith I framed the first unemployment insurance scheme. The prime parent of all national insurance schemes is, of course Mr. Lloyd George. I was his lieutenant in those distant days and afterward it fell to me as Chancellor of the Exchequer eighteen years ago to lower the pension age to 65 and bring in the widows and orphans.

The time is now ripe for another great advance, and any one can see what large savings there will be in administration once the whole process of insurance becomes unified, compulsory and national. Here is a real opportunity for what I once called "bringing the magic of averages to the rescue of the millions," therefore, you must rank me and my colleagues as strong partisans of national compulsory insurance for all classes, for all purposes, from the cradle to the grave.

Every preparation, including, if necessary, preliminary legislative preparation, will be made with the utmost energy, and the necessary negotiations to deal with existing worthy interests are being actively pursued so that when the moment comes everything will be ready.

We Cannot Have Drones

Here let me remark that the best way to insure against unemployment is to have no unemployment.

There is another point: unemployables, rich or poor, will have to be toned up. We cannot afford to have idle people. Idlers at the top make idlers at the bottom. No one must stand aside in his working prime to pursue a life of selfish pleasure.

There are wasters in all classes. Happily they are only a small minority in every class, but anyhow we cannot have a band of drones in our midst, whether they come from the ancient aristocracy or the modern plutocracy, or the ordinary type of pub crawler.

There are other large matters which also have to be dealt with in our four-year plan and upon which thought, study and discussion are advancing rapidly.

Let me take first of all the question of British agriculture.

We have, of course, to purchase a large proportion of our food and vital raw materials overseas. Our foreign investments have been expended in the common cause. TheBritish nation that has now once again saved the freedom of the world has grown great on cheap and abundant food. Had it not been for the free-trade policy of Victorian days, our population would never have risen to the level of a great power and we might have gone down the drain with many other minor states, to the disaster of the whole world.

Abundant food has brought our forty-seven million Britons into the world. Here they are and they must find their living.

It is absolutely certain that we shall have to grow a larger proportion of our food at home.

During the war immense advances have been made by the agricultural industry. The position of the farmers has been improved, the position of laborers immeasurably improved. The efficient agricultural landlord has an important part to play. I hope to see a vigorous revival of healthy village life on the basis of these higher wages and of improved housing and, what with the modern methods of locomotion and the modern amusements of the cinema and wireless, to which will soon be added television, life in the country and on the land ought to compete in attractiveness with life in the great cities.

But all this would cost money. When the various handicaps of war conditions are at an end I expect that better national house-keeping will be possible and that as a result of technical improvements in British agriculture the strain upon the State will be relieved. At the same time, the fact remains that if expansion and improvement of British agriculture is to be maintained, as it must be maintained, and a reasonable level of prices is to be maintained, as it must be maintained, there are likely to be substantial charges which the State must be prepared to shoulder.

Next there is the spacious domain of public health. I was brought up on the maxim of Lord Beaconsfield which my father was always repeating: "Health and the laws of health." We must establish on broad and solid foundations a national health service.

Here let me say that there is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies. Healthy citizens are the greatest asset any country can have. One of the most somber anxieties which beset those who look thirty or forty or fifty years ahead, and in the field one can see ahead only too clearly, is a dwindling birth rate. In thirty years, unless the present trends alter, a smaller working and fighting population will have to support and protect nearly twice as many old people: in fifty years the position will be worse still. If this country is to keep its high place in the leadership of the world and to survive as a great power that can hold its own against external pressure, our people must be encouraged by every means to have larger families.

For this reason, well-thought-out plans for helping parents to contribute this life-spring to the community are of prime importance. The care of the young and establishment of sound hygienic conditions of motherhood have a bearing upon the whole future of the race which is absolutely vital. Side by side with that is the war upon disease, which, let me remind you, so far as it is successful will directly aid the national insurance scheme. Upon all this, planning is vigorously proceeding.

The Question of Education

Following upon health and welfare is the question of education. The future of the world is left to highly educated races who alone can handle the scientific apparatus necessary for pre-eminence in peace or survival in war. 1 hope our education will become broader and more liberal. All wisdom is not new wisdom and the past should be studied

if the future is to be successfully encountered. To quote Disraeli again in one of his most pregnant sayings: "Nations are governed by force or by tradition." In moving steadily and steadfastly from a class to a national foundation in the politics and economics of our society and civilization, we must not forget the glories of the past nor how many battles we have fought for the rights of the individual and for human freedom.

We must beware of trying to build a society in which nobody counts for anything except the politician or an official, a society where enterprise gains no reward and thrift no privileges. I say "trying to build" because of all the races in the world our people would be the last to consent to be governed by a bureaucracy. Freedom is their life blood. These two great wars, scourging and harrowing men's souls, have made the British nation the master in its own house. The people have been rendered conscious that they are coming into their inheritance.

The treasures of the past, the toil of the centuries, the long built-up conceptions of decent government and fair play and tolerance which comes from the free working of the parliamentary and electoral institutions and the great colonial possessions for which we are trustees in every part of the globe—all these constitute parts of this inheritance and the nation must be fitted for its responsibilities and the high duty. Human beings are endowed with infinitely varying qualities and dispositions and each one different from the other. We cannot make them all the same. It would be a pretty dull world if we did.

It is in our power, however, to secure equal opportunities for all. Facilities for advanced education must be evened out and multiplied. No one who can take advantage of higher education should be denied this chance. You cannot conduct a modern community except with an adequate supply of persons upon whose education, whether humanitarian, technical or scientific, much time and money have been spent.

There is another element which should never be banished from our system of education. Here we have freedom of thought as well as freedom of conscience. Here we have been pioneers of religious toleration.

But side by side with all this has been the fact that religion has been the rock in the life and character of the British people, upon which they have built their hopes and cast their cares. This fundamental element must never be taken from our schools and I rejoice to learn of enormous progress that is being made along all religious bodies in freeing themselves from sectarian jealousies and feuds while preserving fervently the tenets of their own faith.

The secular schooling of the great mass of our scholars must be progressively prolonged and for this we must both improve our schools and train our teachers.

After schooltime ends we must not throw our youth uncared for and unsupervised on to the labor market, with its blind-alley occupations which start so fair and often end so foul.

We must make plans for part-time release from industry so that our young people may have the chance to carry on their general education and also to obtain specialized education which will fit them better for their work.

"Forward, in a Great Family"

Under our ancient monarchy, that bulwark of British liberties, that barrier against dictatorships of all kinds, we intend to move forward in a great family, preserving the comradeships of the war, free forever from the class prejudice and other forms of snobbery from which in modern times we have suffered less than most other nations, and

from which we are now shaking ourselves entirely free. Britain is a fertile mother and natural genius springs from the whole people.

We have made great progress, but we must make far greater progress. We must make sure that the path to higher functions throughout our society and empire is really open to children of every family. Whether they can tread that path will depend upon their qualities, tested by fair competition.

All cannot reach the same level, but all must have their chance.

I look forward to a Britain so big that she will need to draw her leaders from every type of school and wearing every kind of tie. Tradition may play its part but broader systems must now rule.

We have one large immediate task in the replanning and rebuilding of our cities and towns. This will make a very great call on all our resources in material and labor, but it is also an immense opportunity not only for improvement of our housing but for employment of our people in the years immediately after the war.

In the far-reaching scheme for reorganizing the building industry, prepared by the Minister of Labor and the Minister of Works, will be found another means of protecting our insurance fund from the drain of unemployment relief.

Mr. Bevin is attacked from time to time, now from one side, now from another. When I think of the tremendous changes which have been effected under the strain of war in the lives of the whole people of both sexes and of every class with so little friction, and when I consider the practical absence of strikes in this war compared to what happened in the last, I think he will be able to take it all right.

You will see from what I have said that there is no lack of material for the four years' plan for the transition period from war to peace and for another plan after that.

"No Promises, Every Preparation"

For the present during the war our rule should be no promises but every preparation, including, where required, preliminary legislative preparation. Before I conclude I have to strike two notes, one of sober caution and the other of confidence that all our improvements and expansion must be related to a sound and modernized finance. A friend of mine said the other day in the House of Commons that "pounds, shillings and pence were meaningless symbols." This made me open my eyes and prick up my ears. What then are we to say about the savings of the people? We have just begun a "wings for victory" war savings campaign to which all classes have subscribed. Vast numbers of people have been encouraged to purchase war savings certificates. Income tax is collected from the wage earners of a certain level and carried to the nest egg for them at the end of thewar, the government having the use of the money meanwhile.

A nest egg similar in character will be given to the armedforces.

For those whose houses have been destroyed by air raid damage and who have in many cases paid insurance are entitled to that compensation. All those obligations were Contracted in pounds, shillings and pence.

At the end of this war there will be seven or eight million people in the country with two or three hundred pounds apiece, a thing unknown in our history. These savings of the nation arising from the thrift, skill or devotion of individuals are sacred. The State is built around them and it is the duty of the State to redeem its faith in an equal degree of value.

I am not one of those who are wedded to undue rigidityin the management of the currency system, but this I say: That over a period of ten or fifteen years there ought to be a fair, steady continuity of values if there is to be any faith between man and man or between the individual and the State. We have successfully stabilized prices during the war. We intend to continue this policy after the war to the utmost of our ability.

Question of Taxation

This brings me to the subject of the burden and incidence of taxation. Direct taxation on all classes stands at unprecedented and sterilizing levels. Besides this there is indirect taxation raised to a remarkable height.

In wartime our people are willing and even proud to pay all those taxes. But such conditions could not continue in peace. We must expect taxation after the war to be heavier than it was before the war, but we do not intend to shape our plans or levy taxation in a way which by removing personal incentive would destroy initiative and enterprise.

If you'll take a single year of peace and take a slice through the industry and enterprise of the nation you will find work which is being done at the moment, work that is being planned for the next year and projects for the third, fourth and even fifth year ahead which are all maturing.

War cuts down all this forward planning, and everything is subordinated to the struggle for national existence. Thus when peace came along suddenly as it did last time there were no long carefully prepared plans for future. That was one of the main reasons why at the end of the last war after a momentary recovery we fell into a dreadful trough of unemployment. We must not be caught again that way.

It is therefore necessary to make sure that we have projects for the future employment of the people and the forward movement of our industries carefully foreseen and secondly that private enterprise and State enterprise are both able to play their parts to the utmost.

Field for Enterprise

A number of measures are being and will be prepared which will enable the government to exercise a balancing influence upon development which can be turned on or off as circumstances may require. There is a broadening field for State ownership and enterprise, especially in relation to monopolies of all kind. The modern State will increasingly concern itself with the economic well being of the nation, but it is all the more vital to revive at the earliest moment a widespread healthy and vigorous private enterprise without which we shall never be able to provide in the years when it will be needed the employment for our soldiers, sailors and airmen to which they are entitled after their duty has been done.

In this brief survey I have tried to set before you both hopes and fears: I have given both caution and encouragement. But if I have to strike a balance, as I must do before the end, let me proclaim myself a faithful follower of a larger hope. I will proceed to back this hope with some solid facts. Any one can see the difficulties of placing our exports profitably in a world so filled with ruined countries. Foreign trade to be of value must be fertile. There is no use in doing business at a loss.

Nevertheless, I am advised that in view of the general state of the world after the defeat of Hitler there will be considerable opportunities for re-establishing our exports. Immediately after the war there will be an intense demand both for home and export for what are called consumable goods, such as clothes, furniture and textiles, I have spoken

of an immense building program and we all know the stimulus winch that is to a large number of trades, including the electrical and metal industries. We have learned much about production under the stress of war. Our methods have vastly improved. The layout of our factories presents an entirely new and novel picture to the eye. Mass production has been forced upon us.

Electrification of our industry has been increased 50 per cent. There are some significant new industries offering scope for the inventiveness and vigor which made this country great. When the fetters of wartime are struck off and we turn free hands to the industrial tasks of peace we may be astonished at the progress in efficiency we shall suddenly find displayed. I can only mention a few instances. The field for activity, the ceaseless improvements in wireless and the wonders of radio-location applied to the arts of peace will employ the radio industry. Striking advances are open for both gas and electricity as the servants of industry, agriculture and the cottage home. There is civil aviation. There is forestry. There is transportation in all its forms. We were the earliest in the world with railways, we must bring them up to date in every respect. Here in these few examples are gigantic opportunities which if used will in turn increase our power to serve other countries with the goods they want.

Our own effort must be supported by international arrangements and agreements more neighborlike and more sensible than before. We must strive to secure our fair share of an augmented world trade. Our fortunes will be greatly influenced by the policies of the United States and of the British Dominions, and we are doing our utmost to keep in ever closer contact with them. We have lately put before them and our other friends and Allies some tentative suggestions for the future management of the exchanges and of international currency, which will shortly be published. Let this be the first installment only.

Victory Yet to Be Won

I have heard a great deal on both sides of these questions during the forty years I have served in the House of Commons and the twenty years or more I have sat in Cabinets. I have tried to learn from events and also from my own mistakes. And I tell you my solemn belief which is that if we act with comradeship and loyalty to our country and to one another and if we can make state enterprise and free enterprise both serve national interests and pull the national wagon side by side, then there is no need for us to run into that horrible devastating slump or into that squalid epoch of bickering and confusion which mocked and squandered the hard-won victory we gained a quarter of a century ago.

I end where I began. Let us get back to our job. I must warn every one who hears me of a certain, shall I say unseemliness, and also of a danger of its appearing to the world that we here in Britain are diverting our attention to a peace which is still remote and to the fruits of a victory which have yet to be won while all the time our Russian allies are fighting for dear life and dearer honor in a dire, deadly, daily struggle against all the might of the German military machine, and while our thoughts should be with our armies and with our American and French comrades now engaged in decisive battle in Tunisia.

I have just received a message from General Montgomery that the Eighth Army is on the move and that he is satisfied with their progress.

Let us wish them godspeed in their struggle and let us bend all our efforts to the war and to the ever more vigorous prosecution of our supreme task.