Evening Post FRIDAY APRIL 24,1942 THE OFFENSIVE SPIRIT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 96, 24 April 1942, Page 4

Evening Post FRIDAY APRIL 24,1942 THE OFFENSIVE SPIRIT

The passage of twelve months has not brought outstanding victories, but has worked a marked change in the mental atmosphere of the United Nations. That decisive victory in Cyrenaica for which the Churchill Government had made preparations that seemed "almost fantastic"—Mr. Churchill's words—has not materialised, but "the greatest military disaster in British history" (Malaya and Singapore) has materialised only too definitely; worse still, the loss of Singapore has been followed by the loss of Rangoon—in some respects, says "Wavell, a greater loss—and consequently the Allied troops in Burma have been forced back, back, back! Yet, notwithstanding all this non-success in the foreground of the picture, the middle distance scenes (only half-sketched) have become challenging, and the farther horizon is brilliant with the golden glow of the victory that will surely come. Concerning that victory horizon there is no doubt at all; and concerning those recent and present events, not wholly satisfactory, that form the foreground of the picture,' public knowledge is sufficient; but there is a haze over the middle distance, where new big events are taking shape, the date of which is still indecipherable. It may be 1943. It may be 1942. Notwithstanding these dating uncertainties, the psychological atmosphere of the United Nations has improved perceptibly. When the northern spring of 1941 began its course, an Allied initiative seemed to be ever so far away; this northern spring the United Nations feel that the initiative, whether it actually falls on this side or the other side of Christmas, is close to their hand. Various events and various utterances are building up the idea of the proximity of our hitting back at an enemy who has too long enjoyed offensive privileges. Intensified air attacks on Continental places, an American army in Ireland, American modern aircraft in Britain that relieve R.A.F. units for Middle East and Far East service, commando raids, German apprehension, a westward movement of German troops, •severer German rationing—all these and other events and reports build up the public idea of something big just round the corner. The public are ready to dare. They do not yet know whether their Governments are ready to dare; and they know that their Governments are in a better position to judge the time and the hour. But all the non-success of the last twelve months pales before this public buoyancy—this feeling that the moment for hitting back draws near. Never was defeatism farther away. Never was there a greater consciousness of moral ascendancy over the great Hitler forces. Nothing would be gained by attempting here to analyse the military situation in the way in which it is partly analysed by the "Christian Science Monitor," which marshals some interesting facts bearing on the question of a second front in Europe. The military decision is in the hands not of any newspaper but of a Government that has shown in the past that it can resist temptation. In the middle of 1941, less than twelve months ago, there was much pressure on the Government to create a second front in Europe. Those who urged this course did not foresee—and few persons did foresee —that Japan would attack treacherously, with crippling naval results to Britain and America, in December. But it is now realised by all that, if the Churchill Government had yielded to pressure to invade Europe in 1941, the Japanese treachery of December 7, and Rommel's comeback, would have become much more serious matters. In a speech on January 27 Mr. Churchill said that disasters like those in the Far East implied many faults and shortcomings—it was useless to pretend otherwise. Yet the outcome could have been worse: Where would we have been, I wonder, if we had yielded to the clamour which was so loud three or four months ago to invade France or the Low Countries? Imagine what would have happened had we yielded to this vehement temptation! Every ton of our shipping, every flotilla, every aeroplane, the whole strength of our army would have been committed and fighting for life on the French shore or on the shores of the Low Countries, and these troubles of the Far East and of the Middle East might have sunk into insignificance compared with the question of another and far worse Dunkirk. Such was the service rendered to the country by Churchill in 1941. But he has other ideas of service too. In Ins speech of January 27 occurs this cryptic sentence: "Sometimes things can be done by saying yes; sometimes things can be done by saying no." Whether the no of 1941 will become yes this year, or not till next year, who can say? But the democratic peoples stand ready for a great adventure. I