Balkan Defeat Not British Defeat

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 99, 28 April 1941, Page 5

Balkan Defeat Not British Defeat

Real Battle of War Still te Come NEUTRAL COMMENT ON WAR ISSUES (British Official Wireless.) Received Sunday, 7.30 p.m. RUGBY, April 26. Whore comment is still free and men do not write or speak under Nazi intimidation it is interesting to see how the meaning of the recent events in Greece is read. In the United States, for example, the Detroit Free Press, states: “The more territory Hitler conquers tho more certain is his doom because Hitler’s way is to bring doom to free people.” General Hugh Johnson also expressed the opinion that the military catastrophe in Greece and the Balkans was not of itself a British defeat. He went on to argue that it would not necessarily be a British defeat if the whole Mediterranean were blocked out by plugging at both ends. The lifeline of the Empire had long been looped round the southern tip of Africa. The same thought was expressed in Switzerland by the National Zeitung when it wrote: “It was clear from the outset that the campaign in Greece might influence the struggle, but it could never bring a final decision. Suez and Gibraltar offer two nerve centres for a partial solution, but tho main front is England and it is there the war will be decided.” In Soviet Russia the May issue of the Communist Party Journal insists that the real battle of the war is still to come and it notes the gradual readjustment of tho balance of actual to potential power. It says: “The great disproportion of military strength following the defeat of France has decreased and continues to decrease. This process is accelerated by the mighty support given by the United States to Britain and by the gradual mobilisation of the resources of the British Empire.”