DIREST IN HISTORY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 91, 14 October 1941, Page 7

DIREST IN HISTORY

RUSSIAN EMERGENCY

LONDON PRESS COMMENT

RUGBY, October 12,

The situation on the Eastern Front dominates the Sunday Press. Everywhere the extreme gravity of the situation is reflected, and though without exception the question as to whether Russia will be able to resist [this latest and greatest German offenjsive and continue the campaign into the winter is answered in the aflirma-

tive. No doubt is expressed anywhere as to the heavy sacrifices, both in the geographical? sense and in equipment and men, which our ally will have to endure.

"The general opinion appears to be that Hitler has put all the resources at his disposal into the present offensive in an attempt both to capture the Soviet capital and annihilate the Russian forces before the real winter sets in. His losses mean nothing to him so long as he is successful in these two aims. The majority of writers are less certain of the power of Russia to prevent his capturing Moscow than of his power to annihilate the Russians."

After giving an unsparing picture iof Russia's peril, Mr. J. L. Garvin, writing in the "Observer," turns to the favourable aspects of the situation. "Our eastern allies," he says, "are resolved unto death in their supreme battle for national freedom and against racial slavery. They know this is the direst emergency in the whole history of the Russian people. They fight with desperation, in the elementary sense, but not for a moment do they despair. In the heart of Russia, at fearful cost to themselves, but matched by the German losses, they are holding back the enemy's pressure across all the approaches to Moscow. There has never been a greater flame of national spirit in the world. The brains and resolve of their leaders are equal to the endless courage and endurance of the rank and file and of the whole people."—B.O.W.