NAZI PLANS IN THE WEST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23616, 28 March 1940, Page 10

NAZI PLANS IN THE WEST

There is now little room for doubt concerning the fate of the peace drive" upon which Hitler, with or without the aid of Stalin, was manifestly building his hopes a little while ago. It has been abandoned. A few grotesque relics of it remain —one was seen recently on the western front when French troops were urged, by various means, to cease fighting—and perhaps another move of the kind will be seen ere long; but for the present it has been relinquished for fresh German plans to win the war by force of arms. A hint of one probable development is given to-day: German motorised units in the vicinity of the frontiers of Belgium and Holland have been moved up. from about 35 miles to only 18 miles, in apparent preparation for increasing pressurp on these two adjacent neutrals. With what object? The German high command best knows, but even minds unskilled in the technical aspects of strategy are entitled to do move than guess. Memories of the previous conflict in Europe, when war in the air was less crucially intense than it now seems likely to become, suggests that part of the German purpose is to seizo favourable locations for air bases, while achieving a movement menacing the Maginot Line. Such bases, in the Low Countries, would confer an advantage upon Germany in relation to large-scale bombing of the British Isles. Thought of this intention need not be altogether alarming, for the Allies are both forewarned and forearmed against this contingency, but in endeavouring to understand movements on Germany's western border it ought to be borne in mind that, as in 1914, action against western neutrals will have more than their discomfiture in view—the real objective will bo a harassing of the Allies. It is reassuring to know "that this time no lightning thrust ran find either Belgium or Holland unprepared and I unsupported.