CONFUSED SCENE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 207, 2 August 1941, Page 8

CONFUSED SCENE

battles in battles. TREMENDOUS STRIFE. (United Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 1.30 p.m. LONDON, Aug. 1. The position on the RussianGerman front at the close of the sixth week of the war is so confused that some correspondents wonder whether it can ever be straightened out. Countless men and machines are whirling and swaying in mixed-up battles and battles within battles.

The Times correspondent on the German -frontier says it is impossible to distinguish clearly which side is the more encircling and which is the more encircled. To the chagrin of the Germans the campaign still has the appearance of a deadlock. The Times military correspondent advances- the opinion that it is more likely the two great armies are locked in a - decisive struggle than that anything in the nature of a stalemate has been reached. He adds: All that can be said with certainty at present is that Hitler’s origlnaTbiitzkrieg has spent its force and there are signs that the initiative may be passing from Hitler’s hands.

Marshal Budenny is dropping parachutists every night behind the German lines, tints replacing snipers, saboteurs, and guerrillas sis last as they are mopped up. Experts in Berlin admit lie has successfully accomplished his object of holding up the Germans until the Ukraine harvest is brought

in. The Berlin News Agency claims that Russian tank units were thrown back when attempting to break through north-eastwards of Smolensk where they are encircled. The Germans smashed the encircled Soviet detachments southwards of Smolensk after heavy lighting; the Russians lost o (jut) killed and (55,000 taken prisoner.

An Hungarian communique says German and Rumanian troops in the southern sector encircled and destroyed a Soviet division. The Germans and Rumanians continue their advance. The Domei Agency to-day said Japanese diplomats arriving from Moscow reported heavy Russian troop movements oil the trans-Siberian railway- toward the Western Front and toward the Far East sector.

-PROFITS BEFORE PATRIOTISM. Desire for profit outweighs patriotism among the German firms in Shanghai, says the New York Times correspondent there. These firms had been supplying their country with badlyneeded materials from all the l’ar Eastern countries, but now tliev are virtually “broke.” They have learned that Russia, a month before the war with Germany, side-tracked (50,000,000 dollars’ worth of goods going to Germany across Siberia, and upon the outbreak of war, confiscated them. German merchants lately- bought 40.000 pairs of military boots from China, and finding they could not ship them to Germany, sold the whole consignment to Russia for the Siberianarmy.