The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1941. GERMAN OFFENSIVE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 86, 12 April 1941, Page 6

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

SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1941. GERMAN OFFENSIVE.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the uyrong that reeds resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that tee can do.

Militarily an <1 diplomatically the Germans continue lo gain advantages in the initial stage of their new offensive. Well knowing that in present circumstances nothing succeeds like success, they are evidently redoubling their efforts to divide their enemies, not only by military action but by propaganda and political action. The proclamation of an "independent'' .State of Croatia may not be an empty gesture, following as ir does the terrible bombing of Belgrade and the other evident signs of the superiority of German force. It is announced also that the Hungarian Army has been ordered to "defend Hungarian populations living in \ ugo-lav territory." Neither the -eparatist. tendency of the Croatian.s nor the ambition of the Hungarians to regain the Magyar minority in Jugoslavia is new, but in each case the stimulus to action has been German military success. The result in J ngoslavia may be to render her incapable of continuing resistance for long, I hough it is still to be hoped that the tougher and more independent Serbs will not be quelled. But the possibility that Yugoslavia may be for practical purposes knocked out of (he war has to be faced, and the only consoling thought is that her participation in the war on the British side was always in doubt, and that it- is unlikely that the British and : Greek military authorities counted upon it. The principal military result 'of the German onrush in that region ■will be the relief of the Italians, whose position in Albania would become desperate if the Yugoslavs were able to sustain their reported attack from the north. Meanwhile, nothing that has happened or may happen in ugoslaviu alters the fact that on Greek soil there is, in addition to the Greek force, whose resourcefulness and resilience compels admiration, an army not susceptible to the dividing and weakening tactics of German propaganda, nor affrighted by the might of German mechanised power. The British Imperial Army in Northern Greece, plus the Royal Air Force, represents a challenge to Hitler which he cannot ignore or evade. His first aim is to drive the British forces out of Europe, to end entirely all British influence on the Continent. The Imperial Army stands in his way. While it remains, as it will remain, he cannot safely pursue! his further objectives. Turkey in particular, having declared a state of non-belligerence, will no doubt await the result of the conflict to come, and its course will influence her, either to honour her treaty with Britain, or to yield to the German demands which would speedily follow further German success. Recent events in Iraq suggest strongly that other peoples besides the Turks are suspending decision, and that for them, too, nothing would succeed like success. So it becomes ever more clear that the utmost efforts of British diplomacy can be of little further avail until there has been fought an action, or a series of actions, in which the legend of the invincibility of the German Army shall be destroyed. To that great task the Imperial Army is committed.