SEEN FROM AIR

Southland Times, Issue 24986, 24 February 1943, Page 5

SEEN FROM AIR

PREPARATION AT BRITISH PORTS (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 22. Quoting a report from Le Havre that the Luftwaffe is singularly interested by enormous preparation in certain British ports, a Berne newspaper says that German reconnaissance has led to the belief that “we are on the eve of an English attempt of unsuspected audacity.” According to an Ottawa message the Prime Minister of Canada, Mr Mackenzie King, in a speech at the Trades and Labour Congress said: “The year 1943 will see a more severe ordeal than any previous stage of the war. We now feel that the power against the Axis is evenly matched, but it is doubtful if I could say more. The Canadian armed forces abroad will shortly face much more intense warfare. M. Stalin in a special order of the day on the occasion of the Red Army’s twenty-fifth anniversary said: “Owing to the absence of a second front in Europe the Red Army is bearing alone the whole burden of the war. Nevertheless, the Red Army has not only withstood the German onslaught but has also in the course of the war become a menace to the German Fascist hordes. Three months ago the Red Army started an offensive at the approaches to Stalingrad. Since then the initiative in military operations has remained in our hands. The Red Army s striking power is not weakening. On the contrary, under difficult weather conditions it is now advancing along a 900-mile front and is almost everywhere achieving success.” Tile German victory in Tunisia postpones an Allied invasion of Europe for weeks, possibly for months. It permits the enemy to organize his defences and so to make the later invasion far more difficult, says The New York Times in an editorial. The newspaper suggests that political squabbles over fictitious issues have been partly responsible for the reverse as well as the Americans lack of battle experience. The paper adds: Lack of experience can be offset only by an overwhelming superiority in new material and in the speedy and efficient distribution of our war material. The best hope of speeding victory is to open a second front in western Europe. The first step towards such a front is to rush more troops and supplies to Africa. The imperative demand for more aid for our own forces in Tunisia must stand above all the demands for aid by Russia and China.