A SUMMARY OF THE SITUATION

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 82, 31 December 1940, Page 8

A SUMMARY OF THE SITUATION

Chief interest at the moment centres in the broadcast speech made by President Roosevelt to the people of the United States on Sunday. In it he made the attitude of his country toward the war uncompromisingly clear. He rejected completely suggestions that the United States should mediate to secure'peace between the Allies and the Axis, and said no appeasement was possible with the latter Powers. He promised expanded aid for Britain, asserting that this was the best way of keeping the United States out of actual warfare, and he denounced the activities of Axis agents in the country and the attitude of those appeasers who unwittingly played into their hands. The Manila correspondent of the “New York Times” says that the extension of warfare to the Pacific is seen in the intensification of German activities against British and other shipping. It is believed that Germany is pressing Japan to speed up a southward advance, hoping to involve the United States in war with Japan, thus making American assistance to Britain more difficult. A deliberate attempt was made by the Germans on Sunday night to set the City of London on fire. They succeeded in damaging many famous buildings, but the fires started were all under control or extinguished by morning. The raid proved a severe test for London's emergency services. The R.A.F. strafing of the Channel coast continues unabated and the submarine base at Lorient has again suffered. Reports, substantiated or merely rumoured, of German troop movements in the Balkans have thrown south-eastern Europe into a fever of conjecture and alarm. Advance guards of the German troops are said to be occupying positions on the Rumanian side of the Danube, where it constitutes the frontier with Bulgaria. Hungary, Bulgaria and Rumania are all in a state of tension. The latest Greek- successes in Albania include the capture of three .villages to the north of Himara and the heavy defeat of an Italian attempt north of Kelcyra to make a drive along the KelcyraBerat road.