London, Mar. 20.
The radio operator of the leading plane in the attacking squadron sent a code message to high Royal Air Force officials, who rushed news of the attack to London, where the Prime Minister, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, announced reports of the attack in the House of Commons at 1030 o'clock last night while the raid was still continuing. Mr. Chamberlain's announcement was regárded as probably unprecedented in the history of warfare. Mr. Chamberlain, winding up the debate on the floor, announced that the raid was in retaliation for the German attack on Scapa Flow. He said, "The attack is still continuing." Loud cheers in the House greeted his announcement.
An hour and a half later the press reported that the raid was still going on. The raid was under way while Lord Strabolgi, in the House of Lords, (Continued on page 8, col. 4)
Time on Allies' Side London, Mar, 20.
"Your Lordships can rest well assured that we shall not be deflected from our main objective, which is defeat of Germany, by the fear that any particular action on our part at any time might damage our relations with the Soviet Union," declared the Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, in speaking of the Russo-Finnish' war in the House of Lords last evening.
"I do not think I can define British policy more concisely at this stage than that," he added, Lord Halifax said he could not tell the House what happened at the Brenner Pass, but they were quite ready to face whatever the future might hold, He was a bold man, he continued, who would assert that time was not on Britain's side. He would be a bolder man who would say that at any price it was essential to Action Due When Opportune take action for the sake of action without full appreciation of all that that might involve.
It was no part of Britain's purpose to destroy Germany, to seek a vindictive peace or anything of that kind, the Foreign Secretary declared, but it was their purpose to see that liberty, so far as they could achieve it, was restored to peoples who had been deprived of it.
Above all he added, they sought security for the world, Referring to the German raid on Scapa Flow, Lord Halifax said from the information at his disposal, there was no deliberate attack on civilians as such.
"I do not disagree with the suggestion that has been made as to the very legitimate consequences that may be drawn from that attack by way of action that our own air force may take at the appropriate time," he said,—Reuter, Talk of Changes in British Cabinet Labour Wants Secret Commons Session to Discuss War Conduct
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.