Hitler Cannot Afford to Delay Invasion

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 2, 3 January 1941, Page 7

Hitler Cannot Afford to Delay Invasion

Surrounded With Wall of Hate MOST FATEFUL YEAR IN HISTORY (British Official Wireless RUGBY, Jan. 1. The Prime Minister pi South Afrca, General Smuts, in a broadcast said: “A year with a black beginning ends on a cheerier note, and as far as Mussolini is concerned, ends on a comic note. One of the two Powers in the Axis is a very sick man, and the Axis is in a bad way. Britain, with her own gathering strength and with that of the Empire and Commonwealth behind her, is much stronger than she was at the beginning of the year. “Hitler’s position has definitely deteriorated. He is rapidly exhausting his own resources and those of the countries he has overrun. The final upshot of his victories earlier in the year will be to surround Germany with a wall of implacable hate of all neighbouring countries, which before had been good and friendly neighbours to her will—a blockade of hate established by herself more than the barricade by the British fleet.

Hitler’s initial failure against Britain and Italy’s disaster in North Africa have seriously changed the situation and have narrowed the choices before Hitler. This fact and his own pride and instinct will in aU probability, lead him i n a desperate Plap of winning the war in Britain itset. While other moves will have to be carefully prepared against, the ■ defeat of Hitler in an invasion of [Britain must therefore be and remain jthe pivot of the British war policy “They say that Hitler will pro-bably seek a decision in 1941. If he is going to stake his force on a successful invasion of Britain, there will be no object in delaying the attempt. 1 jpresume that Hitler is fully prepared. The British war effort and that of the 'United States of America will provide Britain with war supplies. The longer invasion is delayed the stronger Britain will become. Therefore he will fight as [soon as possible. It may be very soon •in the New Year.

Possible Heasons for Delay,

Of course, Hitler may have special reasons for delaying the invasion. He may wish to continue the British air attack on cities to try to destroy Bi itain s industrial and transport resources and sap the people’s morale, or he may plan to intensify the campaign against British shipping with U-boats, or he may intend to give r.ld to his third partner in the Axis to develop her aggressive policies in the Far East and so deflect American attention and her resources in that direction. With Italy in mortal difficulties and the internal situation in Germany and their occupied territory deteriorating all the time, it is questionable whether he can afford to wait beyond 1941. “When the attack does come off, Hitler will put all the vast strength of his incomparable war machine into it. For him and his Nazi order it will be a mortal issue—a question of life and death—but so also it will be for Britain, her Empire and the whole British British Commonwealth, too, and so will it be the cause of freedom throughout the world. It will be an Armageddon from which will issue either a new birth of human liberation or the eclipse of the human spirit and the fall-b»ck to another dark age Most Fateful Year. “The year may therefore be the most fateful year in modern history, for the new world as much as for the old. Consciousness of the immensity of the issues at stake and their worldwide reach has' been rapidly growing in America. I feel convinced that in the last resources America will not, as indeed she cannot afford to, stand out. Under the great and inspiring leadership of President Roosevelt, she will one more freely and of her own choice dedicate herself to the greatest of humane causes. In the spirit of (Abraham Lincoln, she will take her •rightful place among the champions of a free world as against a slave world.”