"At that time," Mr. Churchill coninued, "the Graf Spee knew that the British ships Renown and Ark Royal weres still 1000 miles away, oiling at Rio de Janeiro. All that awaited her outside the harbour of Montevideo were the two six-inch-gun cruisers Achilles and Ajax, who had chased her in, and the eight-inch-gun cruiser Cumberland, which had arrived to take the place of the damaged Exeter.
"Our own losses have not been slight.
here is no harm in stating that the Ajax, in which was Commodore Harwood (since promoted to the rank of Rear-Admiral), had two of her four turrets knocked out while the although surrounded by German destroyers.
"A considerable proportion of the total German cruiser strength has been sunk or put out of action in a single week."
Mr. Churchill continued with reference to the action of German air raiders yesterday and today, when "the German raval air forces have been redoubling their efforts and sinking fishing smacks and drowning fishermen."
"The German Air Force," he stated. "has been trying to bomb unarmed merchant ships, including an Italian ship, moving up and down the east coast of Britain.
"German aeroplanes have even machine-gunned sailors on the decks of unarmed merchant ships.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.