POSITION OF RUSSIA

Southland Times, Issue 24547, 23 September 1941, Page 5

POSITION OF RUSSIA

BRITISH ACTION DEMANDED “TIME FOR BOLDNESS” (Rec. 7.10 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 22. What our military action will be in face of the present peril to Russia need not be discussed, but it would appear that the present is the time for the utmost legitimate boldness, says The Times in a leading article. The argument that this campaign will seriously weaken Germany may be true, but complications may prove misleading. No other such ally can ever appear in the Old World and no other army that can face Germany’s full might can replace the Red Army if it is overthrown. The Times says that perhaps final victory can be won even if Russia fell, but the road would be long and weary and the world would be miserably exhausted at the end. We, therefore, must aim to support Russia’s gallant and dogged struggle by every means in our power. We have the satisfaction of knowing that we can now meet demands to which we could not have responded a few months ago and meet them we must, so far as is humanly possible.

The recent news from Russia is extremely disturbing, says The Daily Mail. Many people here are rudely awakening from the dream that Russia is winning the war for us. It is now evident to the blindest optimists that the gravest situation has arisen in the southern sector of the Russian front. Under such foreboding circumstances M. Ivan Maisky, the Russian Ambassador, appealing to British workers, cried: “We need tanks, more tanks and yet more tanks. Twice gives he who gives at the right time.” MATERIAL AID FOR SOVIET The Daily Telegraph says the Cabinet has adopted an “all-in plan” for material aid for Russia in the next few months, which the British delegation is placing before the Moscow conference. The Russians’ greatest need is fighters and tanks to replace the terrific wastage. The Russians still possess considerable reserves of war material, but the extent to which they are able to

throw their resources into the present struggle depends on the ability of Britain and America to replenish them before the fiercer battles of the spring. From a long-range view Russia wants American machinery, tools and oildrilling plants to equip new factories still beyond bombing range. The British plan covers these aspects and British needs have been cut to the bone to provide the maximum possible aid. The British Press generally criticizes Britain’s lack of assistance to Russia. The New Statesman says that official opinion seems to consider nothing on the Western Front is possible. Apparently the British General Staff regards the risks as too great and equipment, especially shipping, is short. The Government fears another Dunkirk or Crete and a British diversion could not be more than a large-scale raid of no substantial assistance to Russia. The New Statesman says that no section of the Press regards these answers as adequate. Everyone doubts whether the experts are fully alive to the extreme urgency of the situation. Leningrad, Moscow and the Ukraine are just as much parts of the British front as the Belgian frontier once was and the cliffs of Dover may be. The risks seem less than the risk of inaction. The German front from Narvik to the Mediterranean is thinly held by second-class troops. A diversion would seem possible in Norway, the Iberian Peninsula or even France. The first necessity is to hasten aid of every description to the Russians, who are fighting the Battle of Britain as well as the Battle of Russia. The common people and the workers of Britain must be taken far more into the Government’s confidence. They must be convinced by the appointment of Ministers and officials who understand that this must be a people’s war. ACTION ADVOCATED John Gordon, writing in The Sunday Express, says that one day, if enough of them are killed, the German soldiers will crack. We cannot tell how long it will take, but we do know that by killing them ourselves we can hasten it, so our business like that of the Russians, is not so much to plan for killing Germans some time in the remote future, but to set about doing it now. The thing we need most in this country at the moment is the invigoration of our fighting spirit. This is not the time to be sitting still. It is the time to be up and doing.