Best broadcasts of 1939-40 (1940)

Major George Fielding Eliot June 14, 1940 Qggggggg-£g..ggggggg-gg-g-g-gggggggggggflggggggggggggOOO Announcer. — And now Columbia’s military analyst, Major George Fielding Eliot, gives you the military picture of the war — Major Eliot. Major Eliot. — Both from political and military indications the possibility that French resistance may be nearing its end has to be taken into account. The Germans appear to have broken through the French center. They report that their troops are advancing from Chalons-sur-Mame towards Romilly. On the French left the German advance across the Seine continues, with the effect of British intervention in this sector still in doubt. Despite British reports that every possible man and piece of equipment is being sent to France, it is necessary to consider from the point of view of the British High Command the possibility that every man and every gun dispatched to France may be completely lost and that Great Britain will unquestionably be the next point of attack. Under these circumstances, what is the duty of the British High Command? To endeavor to make a possibly hopeless resistance in France, or to hold back as much as possible for the defense of Great Britain herself ? It is not a decision with which I should like to be charged, and that it is the cause of great heartburning in high British circles there can be no possible doubt. On the one hand, if France goes down, when she might have been saved, Britain will be in deadly peril which might perhaps have been avoided. On the other hand, if the French case is already hopeless, then every man sent to France now is so much loss to the defense of Britain. As a tragic dilemma this has few parallels in history. Mean¬ while, French resistance still continues. Always provided the Germans do not reach the point of exhaustion and have to stop to consolidate and bring up fresh troops and supplies, 333