THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Wednesday, December 31, 1941. A TESTING YEAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24803, 31 December 1941, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Wednesday, December 31, 1941. A TESTING YEAR

The British Minister of Information, Mr Brendon Bracken, three months ago said that we should not forget at any time the “cold, skilful professional soldiers” who are directing this war for Germany no less than Herr Hitler is. The advice is worth keeping in mind as, with the sands of another year running out, we attempt to balance the successes and failures of 1941 in the scales of judgment. A few days ago, in Washington, Mr Churchill gave a wholly confident reply to the question whether he had any doubt as to the outcome of the struggle. But it was noticeable that he, too, deliberately discouraged the hope that internal dissensions might soon begin to affect the stability of the German political structure. It is true that for many months past. there have been reports of quarrels and jealousies within the Nazi hierarchy, affecting the generals as well as the political group that surrounds the Fuhrer. And these doubtless have a basis in fact, otherwise the drastic changes recently made in the High Command would seeni to be entirely devoid of meaning. But to argue from these symptoms of uneasiness that the enemy is at last becoming divided would at this stage be a dangerously delusive, even though it might be a pleasant, exercise.

Mr Churchill has lately, in characteristic terms, counselled against three results of too complacent thinking. There is, he says, no reason to assume that German losses in Russia are yet heavy enough to affect the Nazis’ striking power; there is no reason to think that Germany will run short of the essential materials of war; and there is no adequate justification for the view that collapse within the Reich will remove the necessity for delivery by the Allies of a knock-out blow in the field. If these conclusions are accepted as sound, as they must be, the Allied peoples everywhere should enter upon another year of war in a sober and calculating mood. Too often, ini the successive stages of this vast and spreading conflict—and most recently in the Pacific—have we experienced shattering disillusionment. We ought by now to be realising that survival of the democratic way of life has to be fought for with all the strength that is at our command, and with the utilisation of every resource of planning possessed by the Powers which form the alliance against totalitarianism. The Washington conference should give us reasonable assurance that, from this time onwards, our victory effort will be sustained without loss of virility or lack of ingenuity. The twelve months that are just ending have seen some extraordinary changes in the fortunes of the belligerent Powers. There was a stage when the forward surge of Hitler’s armies seemed to be bringing European hegemony completely within his grasp. The southward thrust through the Balkans engulfed Jugoslavia, Greece and most of the ASgean. In North Africa General Wavell’s earlier successes were nullified when the campaigns in Greece and Crete compelled a costly diversion of our Middle Eastern strength. . Enemy pressure threatened Turkey and the group of States surrounding her, while in Libya a new Axis army was poised for action against Egypt and the Suez life-line. We can be thankful for escape from the dangers' that loomed so menacingly six months ago. Arrogant Italian pride has been humbled, we may hope, once and for all. Axis schemings in Palestine, Iraq and Iran have been thwarted, and General von Rommel’s divisions in Libya, badly battered, are once more pressed back beyond Benghazi. In the southern Caucasus, closing the gateways to India and the Suez, General Wavell’s army is strong and watchful. Hitler, frustrated in the north by Russian valour and military skill, may try yet to reach oil through Turkey. If he does he will take a chance as hazardous as that risked in Russia. For the Russians themselves no praise is too high, nor is the end of Hitler’s discomfiture in that vast arena yet in sight. The new year will reveal the full significance of the heroic Russian achievements of the past few months; but it can at least be said with certainty that on Russian soil a tremendous contribution to eventual victory has already been made.

Indeed, as the year dies we may reckon that in Europe and the Middle East we have the measure of our opponents, although that is not by any means to say that we ignore the possibilities of wider violence and cunning that yet remain to a resourceful, unscrupulous and as yet unbeaten foe. The Battle of the Atlantic, we are led to suppose, continues to go reasonably well for us, and American aid flows increasingly to the- widespread Allied fronts regardless of the new and grave preoccupations of the United States in the Pacific. Moreover, we begin this year not with the United States still playing the uncertain role of non-belligerent supporter of the Allied cause, but with the American people facing actively a challenge to their own survival. Japan’s treacherous aggression in the Pacific swept from the American scene the last vestiges of isolationism. It had the effect of outlining the world struggle in almost its last detail, of giving definite direction to all American effort and ultimate meaning to the charter of rights proclaimed by Mr Roosevelt and Mr Churchill after their

Atlantic rendezvous last August. We have had hard and heavy tidings from the Pacific front in these past three weeks. The successes won by Japan have set us back badly, exposing negligence and perhaps incompetence on our own side as much as they uncovered perfidious yet thorough planning on the other. We in this Dominion, and the people of Australia, are forced to acquire a grip of realities at the moment, for war is virtually at our shores. But for all that, provided there are clearness of vision and firmness of purpose, we may look into the future confidently. Might is on our side as well as justice. If, as may be supposed, a new and comprehensive Allied strategy is to be the product of the newer and wider perils confronting us, the task of purging the world of evil in government should not be beyond our capabilities.