WAR NOT OVER!

Grey River Argus, 20 October 1943, Page 3

WAR NOT OVER!

Hard Times Ahead HON. W. NASH’S WARNING WELLINGTON, Oct. 19. _ The Finance Minister, Hon. WNash opened to-day the annual com ference of the Public Service Association here. He declared that nothing could be more dangerous than a tendency to slacken in the war effort. Such an attitude of mind could result in the extending of the war for perhaps 12 months or more, I and thus give the enemy the time to recuperate in a way that they would not otherwise have. The war was not over. We had not defeated. Germany. He 1 bought that we ■.•.’ere closer to it than a lot of people might think; but, with the war situation as it is, while there were mil-1 lions of men under arms, and millions of men and women suffering from real hardships and starving ini many places, to suggest that wel should ease up and prepare for peace! in its fullness was all wrong. He paid; a tribute to what Russia was accom- J pushing. He said that New Zealand forces had helped in the great job in the South-west. Pacific. He hoped that there would be no suggestion in this country that we had done or were doing too much. He hoped that the people would rdmember what the people of Britain had suffered and achieved when they felt like talking that way. He said the world situation was better lor the Allied .Nations than since September, 1939, but a concentrated effort was needed more than ever to finish the war. There was a great danger of a food shortage in the world during the next tew years. It was estimated that between /three

and five hundred million people wouiS be on the verge of starvation befortj the war was over, the most of then! in Europe and some in China. Il was essential to make preparations] for the post-war peripd. There would] be a decade of adjustments, when' things would be just as difficult, if not 'more so, than during the past four years, and <vc must think now of some objectives that would enable us to get through the chaotic conditions that would arise. He referred to various world conferences that, were now going on in connection with trade, currency, air transport, the refuge problem, and other international questions, and emphasised the part that civil servants would play in them.

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plans caiinot at the present Moscow conference be reconciled entirely, and the growing offensive against Germany be.co-ordinated so as to hasten victory very markedly'. That anticipation, appears to Iknow evident in all of: the conn ments of Allied spokesmen. Germany’s capacity of resistance is recognised as being very great, as it must be considering how her forces are dispersed all around the territory which she holds.

Nevertheless, it is the prospect of pressure growing all around thatl area which prompts the expectation that somewhere an unprecedented crack may at any time occur, as now actually threatens upon the Lower Dnieper. The raids in Germany are steadily lowering war production, whereas Allied supplies of all categories are increasing. Just as it was earlier m the war essential to maintain a sense of proportion when the enemy was in the ascendant, so a similar broad view now demonstrates that the Allied ascendancy must exert a cumulative effect, and once it begins to lessen the enemy’s resistance, that process will grow in, a geometrical, ratio. Why Allied spokesmen insist that there shall be meantime no wishful thinking or relaxation is simply that the growing pressure upon Germany shall continue growing until it becomes finally and utterly irresistible. The Allies, relying so largely as they do upon air ascendancy, are now able to write off as negligible losses that scarcely have been sustained when their supply of aircraft was far less than that of Germany. It is only a matter of time when the enemy’s ability to replace losses will have declined in such a degree that on every front he will have to try and makeshift with as relatively fewer—and less adequate—aircraft as he now is shown to be using on the Eastern Front. Withdrawal there is.doubtless the main aim of the Germans, but even this they find increasingly difficult because the Russians, with their initiative and their numbers, are preventing the enemy almost all along the Dnieper from disengaging in a manner consistent with the retention of a properly organised line. If, therefore, the outlook in the Pacific is that events must wait upon those in Europe, there is at least the prospect that the wait is not destined to be anywise as lengthy as appeared likely even a year ago.