The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 1940. TIGHTENING THE GRIP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 84, 9 April 1940, Page 6

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

TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 1940. TIGHTENING THE GRIP.

Vor the cause thai lacks assistance, For the wrong that reeds resistance, Fcr the future «n the distance, And the good that ire ran do.

| Ships carrying: Swedish ore have kept within Norwegian territorial waters, thus evading: the Allies' contraband control system. This was a big hole in the blockade, and ?11 the more serious because through it were transported most substantial supplies of an essential raw material. That hole has now been blocked by British warships, which have laid minefields across it at more than one place. This action, though it will be effectual in stopping the traffic onlv in the winter -months (for an alternative, shorter route remainavailable for use in the relatively short summer) is yet another illustration of the vast importance to Britain of sea power. Without a large navy, strong in all categories of ships, manned by trained and experienced men, Britain could not hope to cope with the manifold and various situations which arise in the course of a war of this kind. Once again we have reason to feel gratification that, with an additional job waiting to be done, Britain had the ships and the men to do it.

Gratification at the success of the action is necessarily tempered by the realisation that to carry it out Britain has had to violate international law. It is true that it has been performed with a careful regard, which contrasts strongly with Germany's disregard, of Norway's own interests as a neutral, and for the dictates of common humanity. These circumstances are not to be lightly weighed. Nevertheless, to the extent that the Allies base their case in this war upon their adherence to principle, that case is weakened by actions of this kind. It is not convincing to defend such actions by the plea of necessity, or by the plea that the law was operating unfairly and to our own disadvantage—as it was—because Germany can make the same excuse for most of her breaches. It is far more eonvineing to say that whatever else Britain and her Allies hope to achieve in this war, their primary object mnst be self-preservation. Without that, nothing else that they desire to be the outcome of the war can be achieved. A war on the totalitarian scale cannot be nearly won; it mnst be won decisively, unless the peace that follows it is to be but a truce.