London                           
 
                      Dated January 18, 1945                
 
                         Record 5:45 a.m.                   
 
                            US URGENT                       
 
                         669, Eighteenth                    
 
                                                            
 
 
The following is a correct and complete version of the Prime 
      Minister's speech delivered in the House of Commons today: (Please 
      have copies sent to the White House, the Secretary of the Treasury, 
       the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy:) 
 
                                                            
 
 
The Prime Minister (Mr. Churchill): I gathered that it was 
      the desire of the House that there should be a further discussion 
      of the war and foreign situations and policies at this time, 
      before any new important international conferences take place. 
      I will try to survey the whole--I cannot say the whole, but large 
      and select portions--of this vast scene to the best of my ability. 
      It has fallen to the hard/lot of Britain to play a leading part 
      in the Mediterranean, and particularly in the Eastern Mediterranean. 
      We have great responsibilities, and we have made great exertions, 
      there. In Italy the British, or British-Controlled, Divisions 
      under