POSITION OF EIRE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 187, 17 July 1940, Page 2

POSITION OF EIRE

' MENACE OF INVASION ITS PLACE IN GERMAN PLANS In the defensive ring around Britain there is one weak spot which invites a German blow\ It is the Irish Free State, a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations, and dependent upon Britain for her economic life, but neutral in the present struggle and still inadequately defended. A Stepping Stone The fact that the Nazis- are Jikely to make Ireland a stepping stone in their coming attempt to invade Britain is stressed by all the circumstances. The Government of Eire, like the Government of Holland and Belgium a few months ago, is neutral. Like them it is administering a small country with an inadequate air fleet and an armed force not equipped with modern weapons on any scale. Like them it 'iies on the flank of the country to be attacked. Like them it might be expected to prove a territory in which a foothold could be. gained and defended. And in addition, just as Belgium is the shortest road to the heart of France, so Ireland is the shortest road to the west coast of England, which is the present target of the Germans and the region at which an effort to blockade the United Kingdom must be directed. I French Ports Sought. In attacking France one of the objects was to seize the northern ports from which the west coast of Britain could be more easily reached, and air attacks made upon thein with dive bombers. Nine months ago those west coast ports were shielded by the width of the North Sea and the whole belt of England. To-day, from the west coasS of France, the Germans can thrust by air straight tip the Irish Channel without crossing Britain at all. On the way they can attempt to establish an advanced base in Ireland. In the last few days the realisation of this danger has been growing, and it lias been pointed out by public men and by the newspapers. Moreover, it is no new theory, but has been preached in Germany for years past. The leading evponent, of Nazi military aims and technique, Professor Bwald Banse, who was appointed' to Brunswick Technical College when Hitler came to power, has stressed the importance of an invasion of Ireland in the operation of conquering the Midlands. The Shortest Grossing. In his book, "Germany, Prepare for War!"' published in an Knglish translation six years ago, h? in-: eludes a map which shows that the shortest crossing for an invading force to the great industrial area of north-eastern England is from Dublin to Liverpool, and that the shortest crossing to the chiaf Scottish industrial area is from Belfast to the country west of Glasgow. He insists on the *;ole of the supple* mentary invasion from Ireland as "rendering certain" the conquest of the Midland region, the industries of which are more important than London itself. > "If this, the most densely populated and highly-industrialised part J of England, can be gripped as in a | forceps from the west and the south east," he says (visualising another thrust which would be made from East Anglia and which would turn intoa double-headed attack on the Midlands and on London) "England would be pretty well finished."

The Stab in. the Back. j The role that German military) thought has reserved lor Ireland is thus clear. It -would be vised t;o establish the base from whic-h the final stab in the back would be delivered if and when an invasion of Britain was begun. The main armies would be thrown at the south near Kent and at the great; peninsula between' the Thames and The Wash; the attack on Ireland might be launched after the other forces had established a foothold, and probably after a diversion had been created by attacks delivered around Plymouth, or further up the cast coast. In the present circumstances Ireland also actually invites invasion by the feebleness of her defences and by the fact that, as in other neutral lands, the invader would thus have the advantage of a start. Using air-borne troops he might seize aerodromes, or employing flying boat troop carriers to land on one of the Irish lakes, push his men ashore on some of the hundreds of thousands of rubber boats reported to have been prepared lor the invasion of. Holland, and establish a base which would be surrounded with anti-aircraft defences.