The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1940. SPREADING THE WAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 93, 19 April 1940, Page 6

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

FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 1940. SPREADING THE WAR.

For the cause that lacks assistant)*;, For the KTong that need* resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

That the war which Hitler extended to Scandinavia will be extended further is the universal belief; but, as before the Nazi invasion of Norway, opinions differ as to the probable locality of the extension. It is much to the German advantage, that there should be continuing and ! widespread speculation concerning "what will happen next."' Before their onslaught on Norway, the Germans mad-e many other preparations besitl.'.s military and naval, with tlie result that the designed bewilderment of the Norwegians was worth to their attackers a division of troops and probably more. It would be extremely foolish to imagine that because the Germans are now actively fighting in one corner of Europe the} - have ceased the "war of nerves , ' elsewhere. In the next few days and weeks wo shall certainly continue to hear of the imminence of a German attack in another quarter, perhaps iu more than one. If the feared attack is not launched Germany will not be worse off, but the neutrals concerned will have been made a little more amenable to German diplomatic pressure. The game of bluff and threat is part of the German method of waging war. It has paid dividends in the past, and Hitler has no reason to abandon it now.

Part of the current speculation concerns Italy. The only eertainty about Italian policy is that it- is not, despite the Axis, pro-German, nor pro-Ally, but pro-Kalian. Its objects are the advancement of Italian interests first in the Mediterranean, secondly in the Balkans. It is in the Italian interest at present that, both sides should be. reminded that Italy's policy is not "neutrality," but "'nonbelligerency," and that they must not take it for granted that her "non-belligerency" is . permanent. Exactly why there should have been anti-British demonstrations in Italy lately is not clear, though we may be sure that, they would not have occurred against the Government's wishes. But, as Italy has made it clear that nothing can be settled in the Balkans without her consent, andi there is no hint of Allied military! initiative there, the reported Italian military movements (since denied) may be ijnpelled by suspicion or knowledge of an impending German move, and the anti-British demonstrations a means of raising Italy's value in the eyes of Germany's enemies. Unless there have been developments in the Balkans of which we do not know, there appears little reason to believe that either external or internal conditions in Italy are such as to make belligerency any more attractive to her now than it was last September.