FAITH IN FINAL VICTORY EXPRESSED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 172, 22 July 1940, Page 8

FAITH IN FINAL VICTORY EXPRESSED.

GEN. SMUTS' VIEWS. "Nazi Successes Of Minor Significance." A HEARTENING CONCLUSION. British Offli-inl Wireless. (Received 2 p.m.) KlilßY. July i\. General Smut-;. Prime Minister of South Africa, broadcasting to the people of Great Britain and the Tinted States, disclaimed his pronouncement was of an official character, nml said he spoke his own thoughts us one with a long experience of public affairti in war and in peace. He bore eloquent testimony to his faith \v a final victory for the cause to which the British Commonwealth of Nations and its Allies were pledged. He ii'ja'm stated, simply and with impressive sincerity, the fundamental aims for which victory must be achieved.

~ Den ling fust, with the military situation, he said: "The Germans have so far had an uninterrupted series of most spectacular successes. Poland, Norway. Holland. Helgitun. and Anally, the most colossal of all —the most stunning of all —the sudden and unexpected collapse of France. Everywhere the Germans have won. not only by superior numliers. but also by superior equipment, 'technique and strategy. Everywhere their opponents were forestalled, outwitted, surprised, and they appeared to 3mve no chance."

• These successes, ho continued, had ireated an impression of invincibility. Jwhich was being most effectively exploited by German propaganda. The Germans were saying that the war was nlready won, and that nil that remained was the final coup de grace to fireat Britain.

I General Smuts said he did not miniJnlso the effect of such propaganda in •foreign countries. It is inevitable, he told British listeners, that there should -be many people who, being either defeatist by temperament, or not aceusJorued to looking below the surface of *vents, had reluctantly come to accept !ihese Herman suggestions, and to regard the war as already lost by Great Britain, in the light of what had happened to France and other unfortunate victims, of Nazi aggression.

That, said General Smuts, was where. in his view, they had made a profound mistake. He did not deny the danger of an attempt by Germans to invade Great J?ritain, but he discounted any prejudicing of the outcome of such an attempt, biased on a series of successes obtained J»y German arms which were really only incidental to, and of minor significance, relative to the main issue. The overfunning of small neutral countries was pf the nature of such minor military Incident.

Z France's Fall A Serious Calamity. ; "Of course, the downfall of France » 410 minor incident," he continued. "It is one of the most serious catastrophies of ■modern times, but it may fairly 'be completely accounted for by the incredible mistakes of the French High Command, 4eep internal fissures of French politics, and the hopeless weakness of its political leadership at a most critical moment. "j "France was a divided, sick soul before ihe end came, and her case deserves our aeepeat sympathy. The British people, jfln the contrary, are to-day united as jever before in their history, under leadership of unrivalled brilliance, courage and competence. Their military iommand ie not questioned among those &ho know.

» "There then in the crux of the war Situation. Britain is, and remains, the inner core of the Allied cause—the main fiastion of Allied defence—the. force Jfith' which the Germans have to deal before a real decision is reached. Until that, therefore, is disposed of, it m futile to talk of defeat." Britain's Strength Analysed. General Smuts went on to analrse Britain's strength at sea and in the air, and he. drew a heartening conclusion— supported by the lesson of Dunkirk— that Britain will prove to be an impregnable fortress against which Germany's might will be launched in vain. - The same combination of «ea and air power which had baulked him at Dunkirk, and which would save Britain from invasion, would then be turned, in victorious offensive, against Hitler—an offensive which, in the end, would throttle, strangle, and bring down in £liins his vast land empire in Europe. i?or, in a war of endurance, the time iactor must prove fatal to Hitler's Jlans.

'.'.'. "Under an ever-tightening blockade, Hitler's essential war supplies must rapidly dwindle until he tain no longer hold down the vast populations whom he lias over-run and oppressed and, starved JKnd sought to enslave."