The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. MONDAY, APRIL 21. 1941. CAMPAIGN IN GREECE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 93, 21 April 1941, Page 6

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

MONDAY, APRIL 21. 1941. CAMPAIGN IN GREECE.

For the caute that lacks attittanec, For the wrong that veeds resittanm, For the future in the distance, And the good that can do.

I General statements, such as that the situation remains very serious, j combined with the slow and meagre reports of the actual lighting, and the i all-too-confident German claims of j gains and advances, produce the impression that things, are going badly for us in Greece. That need not mean that they are going badly for the X.Z.E.F., which has, according to available information, more than held its own in fighting which for -heer violence has probably never been surpassed. Our men have had a very severe baptism of fire. It appears—though little is clear in the fog of war—that they had to withstand one of the heaviest German attacks, and that they met it in the finest spirit of the Anzac tradition. Though that is what we expected of them and of their Australian comrades, we have good reason for deep pride in their accomplishment. But it appears that, as so often has happened before, the weight of the German attack, in metal and men, sustained all along the line, has been too great for any troops to withstand indefinitely. A retiring movement, the nature and circumstances of which are unexplained, _is going on. It is sad news, but we must accept it in the steadfast spirit of British people who have known disappointment before, and will know it again. The advance the Germans have made has cost them dearly, and though no doubt their propagandists in Berlin will make the most of a British retirement, their troops on the spot will know the price which they have been forced to pay for it.

Meanwhile, it is a matter of general and regretful comment that the British ' information service is, whether by design or not, so meagre and restricted. When a desperate conflict is taking place, responsible officers have many other things to do before they can spare time to give information for people at home. That fact is understood and accepted as inevitable. But what the responsible authorities seem again to have failed to appreciate is that Germany fights with other weapons besides those she puts in the hands of her soldiers. All the time, and with redoubled intensity when a ihilitary campaign is in progress, she fights with propaganda. Her propaganda services pour out information, in which the false is so mixed up with the true that the innocent cannot distinguish between the two. In ordinary circumstances, our people may, and do, refuse to give attention to any German statement; they prefer to wait for the British. But when they wait in vain for any comprehensive, factual British statement, the German claims, both the false and the true, are likely to gain attention. When there is a vacuum the Germans hasten to fill it. The consequence is that the British reticence, which may have good military reasons, may be attributed to reluctance to give out unpalatable facts—which is exactly the conclusion the Germans wish to be drawn. The situation as it appears to-day calls aloud for an authoritative and candid British statement, supplemented by information from our own Government concerning the N.Z.E.F.