UTMOST BOLDNESS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20568, 23 September 1941, Page 5

UTMOST BOLDNESS

TIME FOR ACTION ALL POSSIBLE AID CALLS IN BRITAIN (Kipp, Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. Sept. 23. 9 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 22. “What our military action will be m the face of the present peril to Russia need not be discussed, but it would appear that the present is the moment for the utmost legitimate boldness.” says The Times in a leading article. “The argument that this campaign will seriously weaken Germany may be true, but the implications mav prove misleading. No other such ally can ever appear in the Old World. No other army that can face Germany’s full might can replace the Red Army if it is overthrown. “Perhaps final victory could be won even if Russia fell, but the road thereto would be long and weary and the world miserably exhausted at the end. We, therefore, must aim to support Russia’s gallant, dogged struggle with every means in our power. “We have the satisfaction of knowing we can now meet demands to which we could not have responded a few months ago. Meet them we must so far as is humanly possible.” “Tanks and More Tanks” The Daily Mail states: "Recent news from Russia is extremely disturbing. Many people here are rudely awakening from the dream that Russia if winning the war for us. It is now evident to the blindest optimists that the gravest situation has arisen on the southern sector of the Russian front Under such foreboding circumstances the Soviet Ambassador, M. Maisky, appealing to British workers cried ‘We need more tanks, more tanks and yet more tanks. Twice gives he who gives at the right time.’ ” The Daily Telegraph says that Cabinet has adopted an “all-in plan” for material aid to Russia in the next few months which the British delegation is placing before the Moscow conference. “The Russians’ greatest needs arc fighters and tanks to replace the terrific wastage,” contiues the Telegraph. “The Russians still possess considerable reserves of war material, but the extent to which they are able to throw their resources into the present struggle depends on the ability of Britain and America to replenish them before the fiercer battles of the spring. Long-Range View "From the long-range view Russia wants American machinery, tools and oil-drilling plants to equip new factories still beyond bombing range. The British plan covers these aspects and British needs have been cut to the bone to provide the maximum possible aid.” The British press generally criticises Britain’s lack of assistance to Russia. The New Statesman says: “Officia 1 opinion seems to consider that nothing on the western front is possible. Apparently the British General Staff regards the risks as too great. Equipment, especially shipping, is short. The Government fears another Dunkirk or Crete and a British diversion could not be more than a large-scale raid of no substantial assistance to Russia. “No section of the press regards these answers as adequate. Everyone doubts whether the experts are fully - alive to the extreme urgency of the situation. Leningrad, Moscow and the Ukraine are just as much parts of the British front as the Belgian frontier once was and the cliffs of Dover may be. The risks seem less than the risk of inaction. Diversion Suggested “The German front from Narvik to the Mediterranean is thinly held by second-class troops. A diversion would seem possible in Norway, the Iberian Peninsula or even France. “The first necessity is to hasten aid of every description to the Russians, who are fighting the Battle of Britain as well as the Battle of Russia. The common people and workers of Britain must be taken far more into the Government’s confidence. They must be convinced, by the appointment of Ministers and officials who understand that this must be the people’s war.” Mr. John Gordon, writing in the Sunday Express, says that one day, if enough of them are killed, the German soldiers will crack. “We cannot tell how long it will take, but we do know that, by killing them ourselves, we can hasten it, so our business, like that of the Russians, is not so much to plan for killing Germans sometime in the remote future, but to set about doing it now,” he states. “The thing we need most in this country at the moment is invigoratlon of our fighting spirit. This is not a time to be sitting still. It is a time to be up and doing.”