Evening Post

Evening Post, Volume CXXXV, Issue 22, 27 January 1943, Page 4

Evening Post

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1943

MR. CURTIN ASKS FOR MORE

When war is waged by an alliance of several Great Powers and various smaller countries those who bear the greater share of the burden call the tune. No amount of consultative and co-ordinating machinery, and no amount of good will, can alter that basic fact. Each lesser Government states its case, fully and freely; the Great Power Governments decide, in no other way could an alliance make war against a dictatorship. Relatively, the London and Washington Governments are giving to the South-west Pacific, out of the Allies' common pool of resources, a much less share than they are giving to Europe. Mr. Curtin, speaking for Australia, contends that they are giving to Australia far too little a share; but the Moscow Government made it clear in 1942 that, from the Russian standpoint, Britain and America were doing too little in Europe; and as a substantial diversion of force to the South-west- Pacific would mean necessarily a subtraction from the amount of force dedicated to the destruction of Hitler in Europe, then it seems that the criticism of Moscow last year tends to correct the Australian criticism. London and Washington in the recent past (possibly in the present too) have not been doing enough in Europe to satisfy Moscow, and have not been (and are not) doing enough in the South-west Pacific to satisfy Australia. Clearly, then, to immediately satisfy both is difficult or impossible. Neither Australia's case nor Russia's case has suffered from lack of stating. Dr. Evatt, an influential member of Mr. Curtin's Commonwealth Government, and one who had worked hard to secure special Australian diplomatic representation in Moscow, .went as a special missioner to Washington and London to impress on both Governments the special Australian reasons and.the general alliance reasons why the South-west Pacific should receive more out. of the alliance pool. Australia rests under menace of invasion. Russia has undergone actual invasion, and much of her best country is under Axis occupation. With great anxiety Australia sees Japan consolidating her Pacific and other conquests and gaining valuable time to do so because the Allies in the South-west Pacific wage an Offensive-defensive instead of a major offensive. With equal anxiety Russia sees Hitler consolidating in the Ukraine and other parts of Russia and boasting that he will hold them defen-* sively for all time. So anxious is invaded Russia that she is waging an unprecedented winter war to prevent Hitler from consolidating; and if, at this moment, and in order to prevent Japan from consolidating, London and Washington were to tell Moscow that they must taper off British and American help to Russia in order to send decisive forces to the South-west-Pacific, their intimation would not be likely .to be popular in Moscow. And, as Mr. Attlee says, Russia's contribution to Hitler's overthrow at present has pride of place. We cannot see how a diversion of Anglo-American force on a scale likely to be decisive quickly in the Pacific could be brought into line with the demands of Russia. We are not aware that Dr. Evatt in his mission in London had Mr. Maisky's determined support, or that he has it today. Having regard to the whole situation, having regard to the fact that Russia fights Germany but not Japan, and especially having regard to the fact that Russia "solely possesses the only decisive European battlefield now in being, we cannot be surprised that London aiid Washington, having listened to every Australian and Allied point of view, leave the war's centre of gravity, for the present, where it is. The amount of help they'have sent to the Pacific is not negligible; it is colossal; results prove that; but it is not equal to a major offensive. It is equally true that Australia's oversea efforts in the war are by ho means negligible. The: net result is that the case presented by London and Washington (either jointly or separately) is at least as reasonable, from the warmaking point of view, as Canberra's case. And Mr. Curtin's broadcast, if we read it aright, is not a challenge to the mental part of the AngloAmerican Governmental attitude. Mr. Curtin goes past-Governments to appeal to peoples. He appeals from the head to the heart. He broadcasts to the peoples of the United States and Australia. He says to the American people, in effect, that their trustee, Roosevelt, acting as a responsible trustee, has limited the share of the South-west Pacific in the alliance pool. But it is within the power of the American people to extend their trustee's limits by their own exhortations. How often has an appeal to the heart succeeded in cases where the head had discovered insuperable objections? •'I put it to the American people," says Mr. Curtin. He is asking the people of America to send more help to this part of the world. New Zealanders as well as Australians are only human when they ask for more. But it should be remembered that when Mr. Curtin says that Japan is buying cheaply the time she requires that is just what General Dietmar says of Germany and her Stalingrad encircled armies, only he (Dietmar) admits that German time is being bought dearly. For Germany, like Japan, is buying time to strike. So long as people at this end of the earth keep that thought in mind their support of Mr. Curtin in his plea to the American people has its place in the human heart, whatever place it may have in the hard game ofr war.