RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 282, 23 August 1940, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current Events (By Kickshaws.) The road to peace is paved with thoughts of Victory. © © Electric shocks, it is claimed, can make the dumb speak. The results we have heard are even better than golf. a © © School children, it is suggested, should grow beaus for the soldiers. What’s wanted is a German Runner variety. a o Britain’s waxing strength, it is suggested, has placed her on the road to victory. The journey may be long, or it may not be as long as we expect, says Mr. Churchill. Nevertheless, he implies that there are still several years of lighting ahead when he refers to the campaigns of 1942. It is better to prepare ourselves for this eventuality rather than be dismayed if the war does not end quickly. Indeed, the curious similarities between the Napoleonic wars and the present suggest that Britain cannot expect a quick victory. Neither Britain nor Napoleon had in those days an air arm, steamships or mechanized units. Me may, therefore, reasonably expect that the 20 years or so of tedious warfare in those days will be spared us. Months in those days were spent getting into position, or looking for the enemy.

Whether the war be a matter of years or no, it would be absurd to start thinking in terms of months. The stage i.s sec tor thinking in terms of years. Since the fall of France we have progressed beyond all expectation but let us not grow impatient. It has now been shown that Britain is no easy military nut to crack. It has been proven that the British air defences of all types can take a toll of enemy craft so great their tasks are very costly. Gradually it is being proved that an attack on Britain is today almost as hopeless a task as it was in the days of Napoleon. That dictator may not have had an air force. Nevertheless, the very absence was in a way an advantage. He could assemble and marshal vast armies and huge numbers of craft with little fear of molestation. The air is a two-edged weapon which strikes an assembler of armies and craft harder than it hits the defenders of Britain.

Mr. Churchill suggests that we are still toiling up the hill, but the top is now in sight. From a strategic point of view there are many things for attention before the top is reached. At present Britain has played the negative role of giving proof of her invincibility on the home front. The next task may well be to prove the security of Egypt and the Fleet, based on the oil reservoirs of the Near East. This new phase is as important as the prelude. Thanks to climatic reasons, the defence of the shores of Britain fades out of the picture as the other phase begins. This makes the task simpler. Nevertheless, the very fact that Hitler has failed so far to find a weak spot from which to- attack Britain makes the position of the Axis all the more desperate. Mussolini's supply position, in fact, is that much more desperate. His only hope is to attack as soon as possible, determinedly, even blindly.

If one surveys the war from the point of view of the enemy, it is possible to acquire a view which all military experts seek, but rarely obtain. The fog of war prevents minor details from being ’ filled into the scheme. Nevertheless, Hitler must be thinking furiously even on broad outlines. He has now to defend not Germany, but the whole of Europe less Spain. He is confronted with a foe working on interior lines, with access to the world markets. He has a foe growing stronger daily and supplied with the money to continue to grow stronger. He has failed to prevent this unpleasant reality. Behind that foe stands the great white-speaking nation of the New World. Hitler’s armies are useless to him. They are denied a battleground. He has no navy. He has indeed to submit to the destruction of the means of production whence those armies are fed. Mussolini, his jackel is makinggreater and greater demands on him. We may bo sure of that, because in the last war we did our best to meet similar demands.

From the Axis military point of view a determined attack on Egypt is indicated as a corrective for failure elsewhere. The task, however, is not. simple. No military operation can be called simple which involves a sea route over which control is uncertain. The greater the blow struck at Egypt the more difficult will it be to make it effective. There is, in fact, a limit to the force and the length of the blow, and that limit is set by the British Navy. The alternative is a smaller blow’ lasting longer. It is usually unwise in a military operation to conduct an attack in this piecemeal way. It would indeed exactly suit our defending troops. They could then deal with the series of taps in detail and avoid the sledge hammer. The task of the British Navy is therefore to interfere with Italian communication so that the hammer blow must deteriorate into a number of ever weakening slaps.

The naval aspect of the Mediterranean, coupled with that of the air, probably contains the key to the phase that the operations against Egypt will take. Mussolini could embark on a hammer blow’ in the knowledge that it could not be followed up or supported after a defined period. The military steam generated in Libya once it had been liberated could not be restoked. It involves a gamble far greater than that upon which Hitler based his spring campaign. History does show that a military operation conducted without absolute command of the sea generally ends with a victory to the amphibious Power. Napoleon discovered that fact when he was forced to leave a victorious army prisoner in the Egypt it had conquered. It is reasonable to assume, therefore, that if Mussolini wishes to determine his ability to conduct large-scale military operations in Egypt, he must commit himself to a major naval engagement as a prudent prelude. Meanwhile he is left to contemplate H.M.A.S. Sydney —one unit of a vast fleet between him and bis plans.

“Please, could you inform me through your most instructive column is such a person as the Scarlet Pimoeinal ever existed? I would be most thankful if you could enlighten me on this subject,” says “P.H.” [The only authentic facts about the subject come from the author, the Baroness d’Orczy. She WTites: “Don’t let anyone doubt the fact that you are real even though it is I and not history’ who have put your life on record. I am only the medium which you happened to choose to make your personality known to the world.” This colourful character is said to have been born on the platform of the Temple Underground Station. Ixnulon, on a drear foggy day in November. There is reason to believe the character is based, on fact J