BRITISH UNEASINESS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 89, 11 October 1941, Page 10

BRITISH UNEASINESS

AID TO RUSSIANS

VENTILATION BY DEBATE

(Rec. 12.50 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 10. Requesting immediate answers, Mr. E. Shinwell (Labour) has tabled in the House of Commons a series of questions on aid to Russia. This may lead to a general debate, bringing to a head the uneasiness of the British public about the weight and value of the British efforts to help her most valuable ally. "The Soviet is in desperate danger," says the "News Chronicle." "The Germans have already won a colossal victory. From the wreckage of the battlefield Marshal Timoshenko may be able to salvage enough to re-establish himself further back, gravely weakened, but not destroyed. But suppose that the worst happens. What will the man in the street say? This is what he will say: 'For three and a half months Britain never raised a finger on sea or land to help the greatest ally we had. The only effort we made was in the air, and that petered out for reasons beyond our control.' "It will be said that a rare, Heavensent opportunity was missed, not merely to help Russia but to help ourselves. With our overwhelming strength at sea, our massive force of fighters, planes, bombers, and tanks, and 750,000 well-armed men in the Middle East, do we still have to stand on the defensive everywhere and let the moment slip? It will never return."