DRAIN on RUSSIA

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 51, Issue 3175, 28 September 1942, Page 3

DRAIN on RUSSIA

SACRIFICE OF SOVIET PEOPLE and land lost territory already overrun Russia has already lost more than 40,000,000 of her population in the war against Germany, states E. W. Macalpine, Sydney Sunday Telegraph London editor. This total comprises losses in battle and civilian population in over-run territory. Russia has lost territory equal in size to Britain, France and Germany combined, including some of her most fertile lands; She has been deprived completely of the great Ukraine granary, and has had to sacrifice some of her greatest industrial and mining regions.

.The drain on her trained soldiers and on her munitions and machines of war has been enormous and continuous.

No matter how well the Soviet has planned, no country can lost its best factories, many of its mines, and great tracts of its best agricultural lands, to say nothing of its major transport systems, without being very seriously handicapped.

' Industries do not just grow up haphazardly. They are established where they are conveniently placed in relation to the. raw materials they handle.

Therefore, the transference of industries from their natural homes to remote districts must necessarily make them less efficient, and no matter how efficiently the Soviet has carried out their transfer, Russia’s production output must have suffered severely. Second Front’Demand Because these things are now widely recognised, the demand for the creation of a second front in Europe is becolning a major issue. It is almost a universal subject of conversation throughout Britain, and it is at the bottom of the disturbed

atmosphere evident in the Commons and lobbies. Soviet leaders regard the situation as extremely critical, and think a diversion in the west might give them needed respite. There is a great danger that Rus-

sia will be reduced to a position where she will present Germany with something of the same problem as China presents Japan.

In this event, Germany would be able to hold her with about 40 to 50 divisions and thus release something like 200 German divisions to fight elsewhere. Some of these divisions would undoubtedly be diverted to Egypt. Increase of air-raids on Britain —London has had enemy planes in ones and twos over the city nearly every night this week—would seem to point to German expectations of being able soon to renew large-scale attacks against this country. There is little doubt but that the Germans will get a warm reception, but our own experience , over Germany shows that no matter how good the defence is, raiders can get through to their objectives.

Consequently, if the Germans are able to renew raids on any scale, we must expect some 'interference with our production. For more than a year our production has been able to operate practically unhampered by air-raids.

The view expressed in some quarters is that we have t still too little material for a successful attack on the Continent, even with the Germans engaged in the east. If the Germans are able to transfer the greater portion of their armies to the west, and simultaneously our production was hampered by airraids, then we would be in a still worse position to try conclusions with them. However, there is another side to the picture. If the United Nations feel the strain, Germany must be feeling it fourfold. And if the people of the United Nations have had no victories to buoy their spirits, the people of Germany must be surfeited with victories, each i one which turns' out more hollow than I the last. Victories which bring no rewards must be disappointing fare.