Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1940. VITALITY OF LONDON.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 262, 3 October 1940, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1940. VITALITY OF LONDON.

The contrast afforded by the valiant resistance of London to the Nazi raiders and the sack of Warsaw a year ago, which has been the subject of comment by the Polish Minister of Information (Professor Stronski), now in London, is of special interest in a survey of the war, and the judgment formed by the Professor is valuable because he has witnessed both these phases. The keynote of London’s vitality is her preparedness for the eventualities that have arisen, and it can be safely assumed that this applies equally as well throughout Britain. The tragedy of Warsaw was its comparative defencelessness against the hordes that invaded Poland. Battered by the Nazi bombers to a stage almost beyond human endurance, Warsaw, as Avith other Polish towns, could offer little or no resistance to the German mechanised columns, which swept onward without serious interruption and mowed down thousands of fleeing refugees in their path. As Professor Stronski recalls, all the public utility services of Warsaw had been destroyed, the city lacked water, electricity, and gas, bread became scarce and the ammunition nearly exhausted; but the defenders fought on until, when they did capitulate, the capital of Poland was a city of ruins, graveyards, hunger, and disease. In that nightmare of . horror the people of Warsaw displayed heroism that will live in history for all time.

That same spirit exists in the hearts of the British people today—and alongside it there has arisen a system of defences and emergency services that have seriously blunted the Nazi thrust, so much so that the enemy’s leaders are sorely tried to find some new method of attack that will give a measure of success in keeping with tlie gigantic losses they have suffered in men and machines—and prestige. Whatever criticism may have existed before the outbreak of war against the policy of appeasement the British Government pursued, there can be none now against the rate at which defence preparations have been speeded up. These, coupled with the tremendous striking power of-the Royal Air Force and the protection afforded by the Na-vy, have made the enemy realise that here is no second Warsaw, though to bolster up the questioning German the claim has often been made that London would speedily be laid in ruins just as the Polish capital was. London’s vitality remains unimpaired; indeed "her resistance becomes fiercer; the whole nation is in the front line, and it is the strongest line ever set up against an enemy. The lessons of Warsaw were taken to heart, because it was recognised that human spirit without material preparedness

was not enough to stay the barbarian. The task remains to continue building up Britain’s resources; her plans have been proved sound, thanks to men the value of whose services may never be assessed. Every day not only is the air invader turned back, but the war is being taken to his own territory, and in the colossal destruction carried out on military objectives by the Royal Air Force the German people may find added reason to ask why’ it is that such is possible when they were promised that London would provide a second Warsaw for the Nazi barbarians.