The Pahiatua Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 1942. DRAW YOUR BLINDS—5.20 P.m. MR CHURCHILL'S MISSION

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLXI, Issue 15076, 23 June 1942, Page 2

The Pahiatua Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 1942. DRAW YOUR BLINDS —5.20 P.m. MR CHURCHILL'S MISSION

Speculation concerning the purposes of Mr Churchill’s visit to Washington is running high It is agretd to be probable that one of the major matters for discussion with the President is the military situation in the Middle East. The dangerous possibilities arising from th© reverse of tbs Eighth Army are commonly realised now, but Mr Churchill was probably enabled to perceive them several days ago. Secondly, it is agreed that the shipping situation is of major importance. The “Battle of the Atlantic ’ and shipping losses generally have not had keen public attention for many months, because foi a time it seemed that the worst was over and that victory in the battle was in the making. The deterioration has been due, mainly, to sinkings by tho Japanese in the Pacific and Indian Oceans and the activity of Germau long-range submarines off th© Atlantic coast of the United States. There is now a demand by some members of tiie House of Commons for publication of the figured of loss ; but it is not easy to see that such publicity though desirable on general grounds, could have any immediate effect Ships are not built In a day, and the British people were impelled now by bad news to work harder in the shipyards the results of their extra efforts could not be apparent for several months. To bavo been effective now, the extra efforts to build ships and to cut down the -ate of sinkings should have begun several months ago It is also conjectured, though apparently with much less reason, that Mr Churchill and the President are to discuss the “second front;*' One of the causes of the present strain on the shipping resources of the United Nations is that they are under the necessity of maintaining and supplying so many fronts; th© so-called “second-front" would add another, and the greatest of all. If we recall the length of time needed to transport the small

time n British Expeditionary Force to Franco in September, 1939, though the French were then our allies, and their ports were open to us and the Germans were preoccupied in Poland ; if we recall also that the B.E.F. was only a small part of the total force opposing the Germans on the Western Front, and that the destructiveness of the air arm, whether striking against ships or against troops, was very much less than it is now—it is difficult- to believe that the United Nations’ leaders are seriously planning the opening of a “second front ’ on European soil. If they could establish complete air superiority the prospect of such an operation would of course be transformed. It appears, indeed, that the air weapon *s the only one which can be brought to bear against Germany at this time without risking enormous losses and a failure which would be disastrous. No one questions the desirability of a “second front” on land; the doubt is concerned with its practicabilityand the fact that the general situation is bad is not a reason for. but a reason against undertaking rash adventures.