CORRESPONDENTS, VIEWS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 107, 8 May 1941, Page 6

CORRESPONDENTS , VIEWS

STORM-TROOPER AXD T»it DROOI'KRS.

(To the Editor )

If there arc in the island of i«4 any considerable number of p©™! who believe thnt Hnier is wSf this war—and lam convinced TtW are— the reason for their hoMfe* this view can only b e attributedto lack of knowledge o f the real facts. I am not speaking as a flaE-wavw professional paid am speaking as one wtfoh, soberly compared the geographka progress and strategical advanS pained by Hitler in so short a The facts of the matter are tE_ —after a succession of teiShu muddles, political blundcrinss fearful unnecessary sacrifice we Wr! awakening—have awakened—in , full realisation of the nature tf «,! task before us. Actually we haS arrived at a better position than** were in at the end of the first thw* years of the last war. Then, ifS will remember. Russia had puC out and the whole weight of the Ea« German was thrown Turkey was still in the fight Avl tria-Hungary and Bulgaria we were pumping reinibrcememinto Italy to save her fronTher enemies—an effort that drained » almost dry so terrible a liability dM she then turn out to be. w was a danger zone. PalestW Transjordania were Turkish te£ tory that had to be conquered. t£ United States had not then amounted to much; our armies were inundfl. ised in France. The submarine menace was at its height our armies were facing their fifth winter—millions had been slain m both sides—the German colonies were dangerous spots where treason naa to be guarded against-em-naval losses had been were subsidising Greece's pn>Ger man King and alternately cajtlinr and threatening him—pacifist daan& strations were frequentein Bolshevist doctrines were spreados —England was drained of herna£ power—as late as March. 191S »« were forced to guard the Ctanafl ports after the big German offensh? of that month almost carried ever thing before after three and a half years of hammering. And now thi? intervention of Rashid Ali and his forty stooges—an interveatioß brought about by Hitler's dirt-aooev payment devoid of any Arab national aspirations and doomed to a speed? end has succeeded— apparently—ii getting some of our tails dowi Churchill promised us four thineblood, sweat, tears—and victor Our boss are paving in blood and swat—we are supplying the tax (and the moans) and denying t» victory. Let us face up to the actual facts. MacCLURE.