THINKING AHEAD

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24370, 4 September 1942, Page 4

THINKING AHEAD

SECOND FRONT CHIEFS CO-ORDINATED POLICY STRATEGIC QUESTION t t HOUND TABLE COMMENTS ] By' Telesrraph—Press Association —Copyright (Special Correspondent) ' (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 2 1 The clamour for a sepond front ! has much abated since the Dieppe raid. The Round Table comments somewhat caustically on Lord < Beaverbrook's attitude to a second . front. ( ,"The man who put himself at the head of the demand for an immediate second front," says the Round Table, "is Lord Beaverbrook —-the man with that extraordinary flair of the modern newspaper proprietor for sensing popular desire, fanning it to a blaze, and representing the dictates of reason as caution of incompetence." Behind Westminster Curtain The Round Table observes lhat Lord Beaverbrook's departure from office caused no personal break in his personal friendship with the Prime Minister, and that recently one of the special anxieties weighing on Parliament, which has little faith in Lord Beaverbrook's erratic genius as a purveyor ot victory, has been a fear that Lord Beaverbrook and not the War Cabinet or Chiefs-of-Staff might become Mr. Churchill's principal source of advice. Many members of tho House ot Commons felt chary of the recent long_ recess, the journal says. It adds: "They were actuated, not by a desire lor Parliamentary interference in strategic planning," but by apprehension as to how the Churchill-Beaverbrook relationship might develop behind the scenes while the Westminster curtain was still down." Expert Opinion The Round Table, commenting on the second front, says: "When and how it can he initiated is a question upon which no opinion is of any value whatever, except that of a few responsible men who are in possession of the lull facts. It is difficult to understand the state of mind of those who think so great an enterprise would have the slightest chance of success if launched under the control of men who are capable of letting their judgment in such a matter be influenced to any decree by resolutions of mass meetings or agitations in the lobbies. On the other hand, it is rightly the concern of public opinion to demand that the machinery for forming a decision on this high strategic question, and many others related to it, shall be more adequate in the fourth year of war than it seemed to he in the third year." The Round Table states that four "certain needs" for the war s fourth rear are: — , „ 1 For the whole plan of war on the technical side to be conceived m terms of co-operation of all three services and thought out by strategists to a strategic end before being co-ordinated with policy by the intervention of any Min2. Production must _be wedded _ to strategy by co-ordination at highest level, which implies that scientific invention must be raised from consultative to executive status in High Oommanfc' counsels. 3 There is a strong case for vesting ultimate authority in a small number ot outstanding minds set free from any other responsibility but that of thinking ahead. . 4: British war-planning machinery must be fitted at the last into that which will evolve as the plan of the "United Nations. COMMUNISTS AND WAR LABOUR PARTY'S WARNING LONDON, Sept. 2 The national executive of the British Labour Party has sent a circular to its affiiliated organisations warning them against the Communist Party's subversive activities under the cloak of friendship for Russia. The circular recalls that the Labour Party conference at Whitsun, by 1,899,000 votes to 132,000. rejected the proposed cooperation with the Communist Party. The circular says: "The fact must not be lost sight of that the Communist Party is supporting the war effort, rot because Britain is or has been in danger, or because the freedom of democracy is at stake, but solely on account of Russia. " Labour Party members must not be led astray by expensive propaganda by a very small political organisation jnysteriously commanding very large funds. Labour supporters must remember that many nations are fighting at Britain's side, some of which have as great claims upon our generosity as Russia."

OPPRESSED PEOPLES DAY OF DELIVERANCE <Eecd. 635 p.m.) LONDON. Sept. 2 Declaring that the day of freedom had been brought nearer by the magnificent courage of Poland's and Czechoslovakia's own fighting men, the Home Secretary, Mr. Herbert Morrison, in a broadcast to Europe, asked the people of those countries and all oppressed lands to carry in their minds three messages from the people of Britain — that the day of deliverance will be brought soon, that its coming is inevitable, and that retribution will be visited on those who practised infamous cruelties on the enslaved people of Europe.