HITLER BLUNDERS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20625, 5 August 1941, Page 5

HITLER BLUNDERS

FIRST IN FRANCE SECOND IN RUSSIA JAPS. MAY PROVE THIRD (Elec. Tol Copyright—'United Press Assn.) (Reed. Aug. 5, 9 a.m.) PRETORIA, Aug. 4. The Prime Minister of South Africa, Field Marshal J. C. Smuts, in an interview yesterday said: “We made our mistakes, but they were small. All the big blunders have been made by Hitler. “Plis first blunder was continuing to go for Paris instead of for Britain after Dunkirk. The plan had always been Paris and the German is never good at changing plans. “His second blunder —a great military blunder—is Hitler's attack on Russia. He undoubtedly expected a quick decision and the capture of most of Russia's resources and to then turn west again. Already the wastage of men and material is vast.” General Smuts believes that Germany’s attempt to involve Japan further in the war is likely to prove Hitler’s third major blunder- Fie said that the end of the last war came because Germany collapsed internally when the morale of the Germans broke. The Hess affair was a light in the darkness and possibly the internal collapse of Germany would make it unnecessary to invade the Reich with a large army. Dominion Statesmen’s Place General Smuts disapproves of the suggestion that Dominion statesmen should join the War Cabinet in London. “The British commonwealth is the first world state in which dispersal and decentralisation are fundamentals,” he said. “Suppose a crisis developed in the Middle East. Am I not better in Africa? Mr. Churchill can consult me almost as easily as if I were in a London Hotel.” On the other hand General Smuts thinks that the sending of Captain Oliver Lyttelton to the Middle East and Mr. ‘A. Duff Cooper to the Far East quite good. General Smuts' post-war recipe is for an association of free peoples embracing the British commonwealth. North America. possibly South America and certainly the democracies of Europe. The main reason for the i failure of the League of Nations, he said, was America's withdrawal. America had now learned her lesson. “When the war began South Africa was divided in soul as regards fighting,” said General Smuts. “That has passed. Hitler has proved my case for me. We to-day have a strong political opposition and a small subversive element underground. I can handle both.”