The Dominion. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1941. NEWS FROM THE WESTERN DESERT

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 7, 3 October 1941, Page 6

The Dominion. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1941. NEWS FROM THE WESTERN DESERT

This morning’s news, direct from the headquarters of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, of much movement of troops in the Western Desert of Egypt, comes as a dramatic sequel to Mr. Winston Churchill’s speech in the House of Commons on Tuesday. In his review of Hitler’s possible next moves—in the event of his deciding to stand on the defensive in Russia and to transfer part of his forces to other spheres—the Prime Minister named the Valley of the Nile as one of the hazardous objectives which the enemy mighty attempt to reach. Furthermore, Mr. Churchill emphasized that it would be within the enemy’s power to make such an attempt, sinniltaneously with other offensives, if he chose or were obliged to pause in Russia. . The activity in the Western Desert, in which our troops appear to be taking a substantial part, may mean that signs have been discovered of German and ’ltalian preparations to make this winter another drive from Libya into Egypt—to endeavour to reduce or go past the fortress outpost of Tobruk and break down the strong Britisi defences on the border. On the other hand it may be the intention of the Commander-in-Chief (General Auchinleck) to emulate Ins predecessor (General Wavell) in striking a major offensive blow against the enemy in Libya—this before the rigors of winter on the Russian front induce Hitler to turn weightier attention to North Recent successes by the British Navy and Air Force in their hum for enemy transports crossing the Mediterranean from Italy to Libya suggest that the German and Italian forces in the desert may at present be short of vital supplies and reinforcements.. The time, therefore, may be deemed ripe for an Allied attack. It is plain from this morning’s Cairo message that the possibility of such enterprise is occupying and inspiring the thoughts of .the New Zealanders.. But as against this evidence from camp and trek gossip there is the factual statement that many of the newly-arrived units are engaged in digging-in and “preparing new strongholds.” . The outcome of the new bustle will remain.to be disclosed by a forward movement from either side. Meanwhile the Empire will wait with a confidence firmly built from the knowledge that its troops are now desert veterans, strongly' positioned, tested in- battle, and better equipped on the ground and protected in the air than at any previous time since the opening of hostilities in the Mediterranean arena. Moreover, the unremitting bombing by the Royal Air Force of the enemy’s positions and supply dumps at Tobruk, Baidia, Benghazi, and his main base in Nojrth Africa, Tripoli, must m their cumulative effects have made an excellent preparation for offensive operations by the Imperial forces. Air supremacy has been won and held by the R.A.F. in this area. The constant attacks of the British Navy and Air Force on the enemy’s supply ships ,in the Mediterranean have demonstrated the precariousness of his lines of communications. These two factors —the naval and air arms should have a ponderable influence in the strategy of the situation. Admirable co-operation between the Army, Navy and Air Force played an important part in the brilliant success of Wavell’s operations, and it may be assumed that measures for even more effective co-ordinated effort have been evolved from the lessons learnt then.

LAW AND ORDER IN THE POST-WAR WORLD

If the post-war world is not\ to be simply another armistice between wars, as was the period between 1918 and 1939, some such system of international policing as is suggested by Colonel Knox, Secretary of the United States Na.vy Department, will be needed. Civilization must be safeguarded from the activities of some future upstart megalomaniac aspiring to power and obsessed by a lust for world conquest. Manifestations of such uprisings must be dealt with at the outset. Peace-loving nations cannot again afford to give international law-breakers and political gangsters such a long start as that which enabled Hitler for seven years to make deliberate and far-reaching plans,for ruthless and unprovoked aggression. The first essential, says Colonel Knox, is the command of the seas. It should perhaps be added, the command of the air also, as far as military aircraft is concerned. The sea commerce of nations must be freed from the menace of indiscriminate sea piracy such as has been practised by the Germans in two world wars upon neutral shipping as well as that of the belligerents, a menace, accentuated by the development of ship-bombing from the air. His suggestion that Britain and the United States might form an alliance responsible for the maintenance of law and order pending the time when the nations could be depended upon to carry on peaceably under a new dispensation recalls the proposal made after the last war, and which fell through, for an Anglo-French-American naval and military alliance for the same purpose. Colonel Knox puts one hundred years as the period of AngloAmerican police co-operation. This may seem a very long time. But past experience has shown that the task of settling down and rehabilitation cannot be hurried, for it must always be subject to the changes in conditions of civilization that are constantly taking.place, and to which people’s ideas must be adjusted by cool and deliberate statesmanship if they are to be effected without those unrests and discontents that are the seeds of future wars. Peace, therefore, has not only to be restored, but maintained against the stresses to which it may be subjected. In no better hands could the task of maintaining it be placed than in those of the peace-loving peoples of the British Empire and the United States, whose efforts in the cause of human liberties are being ever more closely linked and co-ordinated for the destruction of Nazi tyranny and the ultimate benefit of the civilized world. With no thought of territorial gains, and at immense cost and sacrifices, they have set themselves the task of crushing international terrorism, and it would be altogether appropriate in the circumstances that they should be constituted the guardians of the peace they are striving to bring to the world.