From the Tunisian Front and Churchill's Speech

This is the BBC. In a few moments, the Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Winston Churchill, will be speaking to listeners at home and overseas. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr Churchill. Let me, first of all, 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 discussion on our home affairs when peace comes.

It was very clear to me that a good many people who are 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 peace time. I am not able to share these sanguine hopes. And my earnest advice to you is to concentrate even more delicately upon the war effort than 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 to deal with some post-war and domestic issues that is only the count I hope that by so doing I may able to simplify and nullify political divergences and enable all our political forces objective in unity and so far as possible in step.