ARE WE SPECTATORS ?

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 157, 19 September 1941, Page 4

ARE WE SPECTATORS ?

SPECULATION is rife regarding the attitude to be adopted ,by Great Britain relative to the titantfc struggle which is now taking place in Russia. Ever since the opening of the lightning campaign, engineered with the usual cunning and duplicity so patent to the Nazi nature, the query has been .foremost in all British minds. The most natural comment was now is our chance*' But for two solid months we have been saying the same thing until the man in the streets, ig* norant of military strategy and of the underlying tangle of international relations, is beginning to pucker his brow in honest bewilderment. Day after day bulletins of Russia s great stand, heroism, sacrifice; more and still more as the countless thousands march from either side towards the shambles that surround Leningrad and Odessa. 'Now s our chance'—so the days go by until if it were not for o'ir unbounded faith in the great statesmen at the helm we woulp. begin to believe that a new period of national lethargy hap set in. Yet, beneath the apparent smugness and serenity of the British press there is (to those who can detect it) a note of sinister warning; a distinct rumbling of the vast preparations which are tokens of the grim sense of purpose to which our nation is directing the whole of its energy. Those of us who are inclined to grow impatient at the attitude of disinterestness by Great Britain are possibly the victims of just such a policy as those it is intended for. How much longer can we afford to stand by and watch the German drive in to Russia deepen; how much longer can we hope to have the same advantage of the main German army being occupied on a front twelve hundred miles from the French coast? All these questions are current to-day, and they are legitimate as they are excusable. But (and it is a big BUT) we have only to listen to the broadcasts to the British muni tion workers for increased production, to the Auxiliary corps for greater efficiency, to the Home Defence Corps for more intensified training, to realise that something is afoot. As the lay-mind has seen, the opportunity was never greater. How therefore can we doubt that the Nation s military heads are blissfully oblivious of a thing so patent to us. Unless they are completely bereft of reasoning, the men who compose the Imperial war office have been making the utmost use of the respite. The whole situation will be followed closely by them, minute by minute, stage by stage, and as the plans for the future mature and the: opportune moment arrives, we can depend upon it that they will be put into action with the utmost vigour and despatch. England will strike and strike hard. No, the Empire is not but its plan of action must necessarily be maintained t a complete secret. The day will dawn when, we in the southern pacific will awaken to the news that the long expected attack has. been launched on a major scale.