TURKS NOTE THE WAR WEATHER

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 144, 14 December 1940, Page 10

TURKS NOTE THE WAR WEATHER

Turkish comment rightly emphasises that the Allies' war successes of the last two or three months have been won "at a time before American assistance to Britain has really begun in earnest." While American aid is essential to a decision in the Allies' favour, the Allies do not rest on their oars and wait for it. In a very brief space of time the Italian initiative has been reversed in a manner amazing. All the world has seen how Mussolini took the initiative against Egypt, then halted at Sidi Barrani. While still halting and consolidating there, he took the initiative —at three hours' notice — against Greece. But both these Italian policies—which, it is believed, Mussolini imposed on his military advisers —have resulted in Italian defeats "of the first order," to use Mr. Churchill's phrase in the House of Commons. The northern arm of the Italian pincers movement (which was to enclose the Eastern Mediterranean) has been blunted by the Greeks, and the southern arm has been more than blunted by the Army of Egypt, now called the Army of the Nile. The strategic and moral position of Italy in general, and of Mussolini in particular, has been damaged irrecoverably by sharp, rapid blows on land, in the air, and at sea. And this transformation in the war has preceded the full tide of American aid, which will mark the full tide of our struggle against aggression. The Turks also note that Britain, in this period preceding the full development of transatlantic supplies, has been able to combine "nightly attacks on Germany" with her considerable help to Greece and with her blow against the Libyan army. The Turks know who is telling the truth about the Taranto naval raid, and who controls the sea of "mare nostrum." The Turks, moreover, will have hardly failed^ to note a certain change of tone in Hitler's latest speech; and they may even have deduced that Hitler's BalkansMediterranean policy—his second string—is now in as bad shape as is his first string, the invasion of Britain. Hitler cannot now depend on any effective MediterraneanBalkans policy unless he takes over Italy and carries out the policy movements himself. That such a development is feared by many Italians is widely stated. Italy thus is in danger of being in the position of the young lady of Riga, whose tiger-steed must have been a close student of "Mem Kampf." It is on record that Hitler long ago sorted out two possible partners, Italy and Britain, for a Riga ride; and the British Empire has been rather fortunate in Hitler's final choice. It is very doubtful whether the Italian people as a whole ever welcomed the idea of becoming fodder for Germany; and it. is to be hoped that Mussolini's determination to ride with the tiger, which has already made him ridiculous, will be corrected by Italian public opinion before the tiger's further designs have reached the stage of complete digestion. That, of course, is anticipating. Meanwhile, the Army of the Nile continues to gather prisoners.