On
Friday evening last
I received His Majesty's Commission to form a new
administration. It was the evident wish and will of
Parliament and the nation that this should be conceived on
the broadest possible basis and that it should include all
parties, both those that supported the late Government and
also the parties of the Opposition. I have completed most
important part of this task. A
War Cabinet has been formed
of five Members, representing, with the Opposition Liberals
the unity of the nation. The three party leaders have agreed
to serve, either in the War Cabinet or in high executive
office. The three Fighting Services have been filled. It was
necessary that this should be done in one single day on
account of the extreme and rigour of
events. A number of other key positions were filled
yesterday, and I am submitting a further list to His Majesty
tonight. I hope to complete the appointment of the principal
Ministers during tomorrow. The appointment of the other
Ministers usually takes a little longer, but I trust that
when Parliament meets again this part of my task will be
completed and that the administration will be complete in
all respects.
I
considered it in the public interest to suggest that the
House should be summoned to meet today. Mr. Speaker agreed,
and took the necessary steps, in accordance with the powers
conferred upon him by the Resolution of the House. At the
end of the proceedings today , the Adjournment of the House
will be proposed until Tuesday, 21st May, with of course,
provision for the an earlier meeting if need be. The
business to be considered during that week will be notified
to members at the earliest opportunity. I now invite the
House, by the Resolution which stands in my name, to record
its approval of the steps taken and to declare its
confidence in the new Government.
To
form a new Administration of this scale and complexity is a
serious undertaking in itself, but it must be remembered
that we are at the preliminary stage of one of the greatest
battles in history, that we are in action at many points in
Norway, and in Holland, that we have to be prepared in the
Mediterranean, that the air battle is continuous and that
many, preparations have to be made here at home. In this
crisis I hope I may be pardoned if I do not address the
House at any length today. I hope that any of my friends and
colleagues, or former colleagues, who are affected by the
political reconstruction, will make all allowance for for
lack of ceremony with which it has been necessary to act. I
would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined
the Government; 'I have nothing to offer but blood toil
tears and sweat'.
We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind,
We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of
suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I will say: It is to
wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with
all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a
monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable
catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, What
is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory - victory - at
all costs, victory, in spite of all terror, victory, however
long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is
no survival. Let that be realised; no survival for the
British Empire; no survival for all that the British Empire
has stood for, no survival for the urge and impulse of the
ages, that mankind will move forward towards its goal. But I
take up my task with buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our
cause will not be suffered to fail among men. At this time I
feel entitled to claim the aid of all, and I say, 'Come,
then, let us go forward together with our united
strength.'
The
German military used the
Enigma cipher machine during WW2 to keep their
communications secret. The machine was available
commercially during the 1920s, but the military potential of the
device was quickly realised and the German army, navy and air force
all used a more developed model of the machine to
encipher their messages believing that it would make these
communications impenetrable to the enemy.
The Enigma
machine is an
electro-mechanical device that relies on a series of rotating
'wheels' or ‘rotors’ to scramble plaintext messages into incoherent
ciphertext. The machine's variable elements can be set in many
billions of combinations, and each one will generate a completely
different ciphertext message. If you know
how the machine has been set
up, you can type the ciphertext back in and it will
unscramble the message. If you
don't know the Enigma setting, the message remains indecipherable.
The German
authorities believed in the absolute security of the
Enigma. However, with the help
of
Polish mathematicians who had
managed to acquire a machine prior to the outbreak of WW2, British
code breakers stationed at Bletchley Park managed to exploit
weaknesses in the machine and how it was used and were able to crack
the Enigma code.
Breaking the
Enigma ciphers gave the Allies
a key advantage, which, according to historians, shortened the war
by two years thus saving many lives.
International ICRA:
Working for a safer internet
channel4.com
- Time Team
screen online: Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The
(1984-85) BBC
- BBC Four Cinema - Gavin Collinson
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