NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE stern gravity of the Prime 'Minister's broadcast on Wednesday admirably befitted the occasion. The supreme merit of Mr. Churchill's speeches is that they never minimise a danger, but never fail to express—and to impart—the con- fidence that it will be met and exorcised. The Premier made it obvious that he took the invasion threat with the utmost seriousness, so much so as to suggest that the attempt may already be .in progress before these lines are read. But here again solid and convincing reasons were adduced for the assur- ance that the attempt must fail, and more might be added than Mr. Churchill had time to cite. The destruction of 103 enemy aircraft in the daylight raids on Wednesday, the increas- ingly effective anti-aircraft barrage in London's night raids and the immense devastation wrought by the R.A.F. at the ports, from Dunkirk to Brest and beyond, whence Hitler hopes to launch his assault, show how desperate an adventure any attempt at invasion must be. The First Lord of the Admiralty repeated on Wednesday Mr. Ramsay MacDonald's effective if ungrammatical declaration of ten years ago that " the Navy is us," and asserted that that was truer today than then, as it no doubt is. An unbeaten air-force and an invincible navy stand between Hitter and a footing on these shores, and if ever that footing is gained at any point it will be found that the army has in these last weeks taken every defensive measure requisite.
