POSTMORTEM

Grey River Argus, 17 September 1941, Page 7

POSTMORTEM

“The decisive tasks of Anglo-French diplomacy in the war should have been to persue an active policy of coalition, to pave the way for new alliances, to reduce the number of potential adversaries ... It was the situation in Eastern Europe that should hav- been of central importance to the Allies; yet even after they were in the war, their diplomacy created two additional crises in Eastern Europe.

Thp first crisis was over Finland. MIX StervenUon on beba f or Finland would neccesar ly have would have had to he conducted along. with the.r war S n a”^ta t m aior power. Third neicn. Al es could land on the part_ of tne de . have prevented the inevnuu feat of Finland.

. Finland were taken Arms sent to F™ deqUa te Allied from the meagre ade^ t to Hel- « S,ea“ s,, "tin tu £ s "an \nglo-rXh expJltionary See to Finland—a plan approved by the Allied Supreme ° n . Feb. 5, 1940 toth-evft l and l Tt the SnXvian countries and the Finnlsh-

Soviet peace spared the Allies a fearful disaster. An Anglo—-French expedition to Finland would have come to an even worse end than their expedition to Norway.

Intervention in the Soviet —Finnish war would have involved a tre- , mendcus risk to the Allies —almost a' certainty of defeat —without any conceivable military objective. The risk was not merely one of defeat in Finland, but one of succumbing to the Germans on the main front because of exhaustion in Finland ... In this question French foreign policy was under pressure from sinister forces that cared little for French security, a victory war for Hitler, or even defence of Finnish independence ... The men who set the tone and were most active in the front intervention on behalf of Finland were yesterday’s men of Munich and to-morrow’s men of Vichy.

The foregoing is taken from Chap. 5 of Max Werner’s new book “Battle for the World.” At this time the Daladier Chamberlain Governments were in office in France and England. It shows that now, as in 1918, the parties who represent the wealth and power of these countries are, or were prepared to risk defeat by Germany in the belief that they would retain their wealth and privileges. Such is their blind hatred and fear of socialism. . Fascism keeps a small privileged master class, to keep its slaves working Socialism frees the slaves and extends privileges to all who render outstanding services for the benefit of the community.