Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1941 AID TO RUSSIA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 10 September 1941, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1941 AID TO RUSSIA

NOW that the autumn campaign in j Russia is moving towards its climax,, E there is increasing anxiety regarcl- = ing the amount of help that Britain ; can give her ally. When Russia en- : tered the war nearly three months; = I ago Mr Churchill took the first op- ; E! portunity of assuring her that she ; ; I would receive the fullest possible : measure of support from Britain.: : This promise was confirmed by Mr; j Churchill and President Roosevelt |, : at the momentous meeting in the At- \ lantic; and has been further implc-: : mented by arranging to despatch to i ( ! Moscow a supply mission under Lord , : Beaverbrook. The readiness of Great ’ ] j Britain to do her share was further ( i emphasised by the Chancellor of the, : Exchequer, Sir Kingsley Wood, in \ a speech delivered last week at Ed in- : j i burgh: : “There are not only our own fin- j < : ancial needs. There are in parti- ; ■ cular those of our brave Russian ' ■ allies, to whom we have undertaken j to give all possible help. They told j 1 : us they would not wish any finan- 1 ' • cial help to be provided as a gift, 1 ] j but they have asked for credit j : insofar as the help which we give : them is not matched by the supj plies they send us. To this we 1 ■ most willingly agreed, and no j | monetary limit will be placed on . : this assistance which we so gladly give to Russia.” : The extent of our economic help to ] ; j Russia is. of course, not disclosed out- j j j side official circles; but we know that i } ; America has undertaken to keep up j ( ■ a regular supply of oil through Vlad-! , I ivostok, and we have to-day an as-! , ■ surance from Mr Churchill that sub-j \ ' stantial British supplies have already ! j reached their destination and that’, British light naval forces are harry-! 1 ing German sea-borne troops and 1 , supplies to the Russian front. ! , The question as to what extent « Britain can give military aid to; , her ally naturally arises. We may: rule out for a start any idea ( of an expeditionary force being ■ . ■ sent to Russia. It is true | \ that there are gateways into that:jcountry—Murmansk and Archangel,] in the north, Vladivostok in the east, j Iran in the south; but none of these! , offers transport facilities for large- ( scale operations. In any case the! i manpower resources of the Soviet | j are enormous, and it is probable that ! <■ Stalin has asked for munitions rath- t or than men. Some quarters have , advocated an invasion of North- ; | Western Germany or the Low Coun- I , ! tries, with a view to diverting some . | uf the German forces from Russia \ to the west. But this plan, tempting! i as it is, involves difficulties. The : coastline of Germany facing the ! ! North Sea is short and heavily pro- j ! tected, and a march through Holland or Belgium into Germany would not i be easy. Moreover, the invading, g ! army would have to be sufficiently large and well-equipped to establish 1 a permanent footing on the Conti- u nent; for no one wants another evac- <> uation, which would depress morale I at home and lower our prestige t abroad. F But while a serious invasion seems out of the question, at any rate for the moment, it does not follow that the large forces assembled in Britain I need remain idle. The large area of | occupied country stretching from the i 3 j Arctic Circle to the Bay of Biscay is; J ; a very vulnerable part of the Reich r dominions, and there is much to be r ! said for a policy of hit-and-run raids. Small bodies of men might land at t various points along the coast, pene- t i h’ a te as far inland as air support would allow, and then re-embark e : when the enemy concentrated in • j force. Britain’s command of the j r \ - sea peculiarly fits her for j part in this kind of amphibious l r \ | operation, which would make q hit impracticable for the Nazis |r II to weaken their army of occu-j' ; j pation in order to reinforce their *' 11 eastern front. The raid on the Lofo-|t 5 ten Islands and the occupation of It \ Spitsbergen by a British force sug-’ ' gest that this policy lias already ro- . \ ceived consideration. There is, of f \ course, another form of assistance ! which is being given in increasing i l measure. The heavy R.A.F. raids 1 : made over Germany during the last j : few* months have several purposes, 1 1 not the least of which is to give the j f Russians a measure of relief from | - air attacks. j & The proposals for helping Russia [ have been warmly supported in Bri- f tain; but an anxious note was struck a few days ago by Mr Jack Tanner, , a prominent Trades Union leader, who r complained that there was a desire 1 in some circles “to switch the war | I against Russia.” Mr Tanner no l f doubt has his own heightened and ‘ 1 exaggerated way of putting things, j 1 and his statement need not be taken ; %

i 100 literally; but there is reason to believe that among a small minority there is such a horror of Communism ‘ that Ihey accept the idea of alliance with Russia reluctantly. They seem to forget that party creeds have nothing to do with the ease. We have made common cause with the Rus-1 sians. not because they are Commun- j lists, but because they are ready to j light against Nazi aggression. When! you are attacked by a cut-throat and a neighbour comes to your assist-! anee, you do not stop to enquire ! about his political and religious be-| liefs; you accept his aid gratefully. This is the only rational attitude we j ! can adopt towards Russia. Her in- j tervention may well be decisive. Dur-; ing the last three months the Rus- i •sians have stood up to as merciless! and on grounds of gratitude as well I as self-interest we should give them : every assistance in our power.