SECRET SESSION SPEECHES

Life Magazine published three of these speeches made in secret sessions of Parliament, — The Battle of the Atlantic, The Fall of Singapore, Darlan and the North African Landings — and good publicity cleared the newsstands of the issues almost as they came from the press-evidence of the lively interest in what the Prime Minister has said. As of today, there seems nothing sensational or startling in them — it has now been told. They are matter of fact explanations of unpalatable truths, — the necessity of secrecy, the tragic loss in shipping, the plans for meeting the U-boat peril, the reverses in the Far East. Some of the material seems in direct contradiction to statements made by others — particularly the material on the Darlan contretemps — so this is important for the record, as primary source material. It lacks — however — the spark that distinguishes Churchill's more public utterances.