The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun. MONDAY, MAY 15, 1939. "KNOTS" HARD TO SEVER.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 112, 15 May 1939, Page 8

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News The Echo and The Sun.

MONDAY, MAY 15, 1939. "KNOTS" HARD TO SEVER.

For the caiiKc that lacks assistance, For the. wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

" In order to .-ever a knot," said Siirnor Mi! -"lini, in his latest sihtcli, "it is not nlv. ay-, iieces-nVy ti> u»e a sword. Never! liclt'ss, it is necessary to cut certiiin kind* in Kiinipe, because harsh reality is mm i i111 «•— preferable to a long period of liitlic'ill -u-pi'ii-o. 'I'lii-, al.-n (ieriuany's viewpoint." il is doubtful whether tluit i (iei inany's viewpoint, now, or Italy's. K.-o-li, in 11 it- 1.-1 ~ t two mouths, has "severed ii knot," lirst in C/rchoslovakia, then i:i Albania, and witiu.ul Using a sword, hut as a direct consequence of their actions they now face a bigger " knot" than ever before. Hut for I hem, il is scarcely believable that I lie British arid French Governments would ha\e guaranteed (lie independence of Poland, Wumania and (Jreecc or come to reciprocal, long-term agreements with Turkey. But for llieni, the British Government would not liave introduced even a parti n .l measure of conscription. But for them, the United Stales Government and people would not have reached the remarkably high degree of unanimity in opposition to aggression, nor is it likely that the American fleet would now be in the I'aoific. These happenings, so momentous in their implications, are the direct consequences of the last knot-severing expeditions, and they make it plain to all that similar expeditions in the near or distant future will be fraught with dangers and difficulties of a magnitude, hitherto unknown to the dictatorship Powers.

The dictators, in fact, by their own actions have succeeded in compel ling a number of small nations which did not wish to " take sides "to do so. Who could have hoped, three months ago, that nations so different as Poland and Turkey, neither of! them democratic, would conclude agreements with Britain and France, agreements certain to be regarded in Berlin and Home as hostile to (ieiiu.iny mid Italy? That they have (lone ~o U proof, not of love, previously restrained, of Britain and France, but of fear of (icrinnny and Italy. They could have made agreements with ticrinany ami Italy, but of what value are such agreements? As to the agreement with Turkey, it is the most substantial link yet forged in the anti-aggression chain. We in Australia and New Zealand have good reason to know the .strategical importance of the Dardanelles, and what it means to have Turkey an enemy in a war. The agreement should make it more easily possible for Britain and France to carry out their pledge to Rumania, if it should become necessary. Alore important, its existence may be a decisive factor in influencing Soviet Russia to make n similar agreement. Even without that, it will be assurance that the passage to the Black Sea, closed to Britain and France throughout the last Avar, will not be closed to them again. This " knot" will not be easily severed.