THE WAR NEWS

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 60, Issue 4235, 24 January 1940, Page 7

THE WAR NEWS

SUMMARY OF THE SITUATION. GERMANY MENACES THE BALKANS Germany’s desperate need of grain and oil especially, and other commodities to a lesser degree, from the Balkans, particularly Rumania, is revealed by the announcement that Russia has agreed to give Germany rail access to Rumania by way of Poland. The ostensible reason is that Germany v -£omplained of delays in transferring to the chaotic railway system, ' and now Germans will police about 200 miles of line to prevent sabotage. As a result of the move Hungary is increasing her frontier gua.-Ms, and there is fairly general unrest throughout diplomatic cirlces in the Balkans.

A section of American opinion is reported to be very incensed at Britain’s persistence in the policy of searching United States mails to Germany, but Britain has replied that diamonds and other valuables that are easily convertible into funds with which Germany could purchase munitions from neutrals were being transmitted by means of the postal facilities. Britain says it is satisfied only a small group of Americans is adopting this method, and she is determined to prevent it, claiming • also that she is fully within her rights in doing so.

The liner Orazio, which was burned in the Mediterranean on Saturday, has been abandoned in a sinking condition. An intensive search is being made by French and Italian warships and seaplanes in an endeavour to find three crowded lifeboats £rom the Orazio.

The Japanese Government has protested at the stopping of a Japanese liner and the removal therefrom of several German sailors. The British action is termed “a serious and unfriendly act." The cap fashioned by Mr Winston Churchill in his speech of warning to European neutrals has fitted several nations. The plain, blunt cut of it has not pleased them.

In Holland the speech is described unofficially as “a call to arms”; Danish commentators see - it as a “brickbat at Scandinavia”; from Brussels comes a denial that Belgium is “feeding the German crocodile” in the hope—as the First Lord of the Admiralty put it—of being eaten last. The Nazi propagandists—perhaps needless to say—are announcing that Britain is “trying to enlist the aid of the neutrals.” In Italy the official newspapers argue that Britain’s aim is to terrorise the neutrals. These are first reactions and consist largely of press comment. It was hardly to be expected that any nation close to the borders of Germany would publicly applaud so strong an utterance. To do so would be to invite diplomatic trouble with Berlin. Thus the real effect of the speech in these parts must remain at present a matter for conjecture. Reviewing the war position as it stands to-day; the Berlin correspondent of the New* York Times states that Hitler must soon decide whether to attack or to remain on the defensive. If he does not attack by the spring, the writer adds, it will be too late to attack at all, for as the year advances the Allies will overtake Germany’s military lead. The correspondent believes that Hitler favours a swift smashing blow' in the west, though none of his generals cares to undertake such an adventure at the present time. If this be true it may explain the curious course run by the recent “crisis” over Belgium and Holland. The preparations made by Allies and neutrals alike to meet a German invasion were extremely thorough. It is difficult to believe that they were based on unconvincing evidence. Time may show' that in the anxious second week of January Hitler had actually moved to strike, but was persuaded at the eleventh hour to wait still longer. This would account also for the most positive statements of Nazi intentions broadcast by Rome radio —ususually one of the most accurate of neutral news sources.

The war in Finland appears to be developing into a contest between Finnish military prowess and Russian air strength. Thwarted on land, the Reds are bombing Finnish towns mercilessly, it being estimated that 3000 bombs were dropped by raiders on January 20 alone. Oulu, an important railway junction near the border of Sweden at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, is reported to be in ruins, but the railway is unimpaired. Indeed, from a military point of view the Russian air campaign is producing comparatively meagre results. On land the invaders are retreating from Salla to the frontier, and have met with further reverses north east of Lake Ladoga. Winter conditions are still severe throughout Europe, and the Western Front is inactive. A British destroyer, the flotilla leader H.M.S. Grenville, has been lost in the North Sea.