THE SECOND FRONT

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 306, 8 October 1942, Page 3

THE SECOND FRONT

VIEWPOINT OF THE RUSSIANS. 1 ' • VITAL ISSUE AT STALINGRAD. PRECARIOUSLY IN THE BALANCE (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright). (Rec. 11.25 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 7. That the Red Army’s continuing resistance at Stalingrad must not obscure the far-reaching gravity of the Russian situation is emphasised by correspondents in Russia, when reporting the lively discussion which M. Stalin’s latest pronouncement on a second front has aroused.

The battle for Stalingrad, says Router’s correspondent at Kuibyshev, has long ceased to be a struggle for a limited though vital territorial objective. It is a large-scale grapple between important parts of the German and the Russian armies for the destruction 'of one or the other, with the chances of victory and survival about equal and the issue banging precariously in the balanced It is emphasised in discussions by diplomats of M. Stalin’s .statement on a second front that the Russian view is tliat an emergency has arisen demanding immediate Allied actibn, regardless of what was previously agreed. Reliable information in Kuibyshev says that even the raid on Dieppa resulted in the immediate dispatch to France of a number of new German divisions, and undoubtedly the feeling in Kuibisliev is that it is the Allies’ duty to find means for drawing off another 30 to 40 divisions.

MR ROOSEVELT RETICENT.

CONFERENCE WITH ADVISERS.

WASHINGTON, October 6

Mr Roosevelt to-day withheld comment on M. Stalin’s statement requesting the Allies “to fulfil obligations on time.” _

Regarding the dispatches of Mr Wendell Willkic urging a second front, Mr Roosevelt said he had not read them. He considered they were not worth reading because they were purely speculative. ' A message- from Moscow says the American Ambassador to the Soviet Union (Admiral W. S. Standley) accompanied by his naval and military attaches, is shortly returning to America to “report regarding ways and means of co-ordinating to the utmost the Russian and American war effort.”

Admiral Standley yesterday had talks with M. Molotov, and it is understood he will see M. Stalin before be leaves. Mr Roosevelt said to-day that Admiral Standley would return to Russia immediately after reporting. Thh Washington coiresp’ondcnt of the New York “Herald-Tribune” says all the available evidence indicates that M. Stalin’s second front statement has been coolly received in responsible military quarters in Washington and London. The correspondent states tmat M. Stalin’s appeal is believed to have been the subject of a conference between President Roosevelt, and bis three chief military advisers, Admiral W. D. Leahy, General George Marshall and Admiral E. J. King. The Soviet Ambassador ( (M. Litvinov) conferred with the ’Secretary of State (Mr Sumner Welles) but he told the newspapers that the second front was not discussed.

LABOUR FOR GERMANY PROTEST IN FRENCH FACTORY. LONDON, Oct. G. Workers at the Renault factory near Paris struck for three hours on Friday as a protest against the conscription of French labour to work in Germany. The Germans mounted ma-chine-guns- at the four corners of the factory and threatened to shoot 50 hostages in the factory yard unless tlie men returned to work. The men then went back to work. Following a Vichy' announcement last night that 150,000 skilled workmen must be found to work in German by October 15, it was announced from Vichy to-day that M. Laval had gone to Paris to confer with the German authorities on the drafting of labour. ' Before bis departure, M. Laval conferred with a Germany envoy ' from Paris.