AID TO RUSSIA

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 63, Issue 4491, 17 October 1941, Page 3

AID TO RUSSIA

SUPPLIES BY SEA. CHURCHILL’S INSPIRING WORDS. Eight months ago, in one of his masterly surveys of the war situation, Mr Churchill said that in order to win the war Hitler must destroy Great Britain. “He may carry havoc into the Balkan States, he may tear large provinces out of Russia, he may march to the Caspian, he may march to the gates of India—all this will avail him nothing. It may spread his curse more widely throughout Europe and Asia. But it will not avert his doom ” Two months later, when the Germans were driving “south and south-east through the Balkans,” Mr Churchill said there were many signs which pointed to “a Nazi attempt to secure the granary of the Ukraine and the oilfields of the Caucasus as a German means of gaining the resources to wear down the English-speaking world ” RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN. How true a prophet Mr Churchill was, the events of the last few months have shown. The Germans have carried “havoc into the Balkan States” and they have “torn large provinces out of Russia.” It would be idle to pretend that the position on the Eastern Front is not grave. The Germans are throwing their immense strength into the struggle in a desperate effort to secure a decision and eliminate Russia as a combatant. The war on the Russian front is now in its eighteenth week. The summer has passed and autumn is nearly spent. Already snowfalls are heralding the coming of the long Russian winter. Four months of furious battles have not secured a decision for Hitler. The Russians are fighting back as strongly and stubbornly as ever. The scorched earth of the Ukraine has been gained by the Nazis and some of Russia’s industrial resources have passed into their hands. But the oilfields of the Caucasus and the shores of the Caspian are yet a good way off. Meanwhile Great Britain and the United States have pledged the utmost material aid to Russia, and already a considerable flow of supplies is moving in. Lord Beaverbrook in his broadcast gave a long list of Russian requirements. The raw materials she needed and would be given included aluminium, copper, lead, zinc, tin, ccbalt, brass, rubber, jute, wood, shellac and diamonds. Practically everything asked for by Russia had been agreed to. Petroleum had been provided from the United States according to Russian requirements. Certain other raw materials would be the subject of inquiry in London and Washington. OVERSEAS SUPPLIES. And here is something to be remembered. If these are the urgent requirements of Russia, are they not also the urgent needs of the Germans? Many of the commodities mentioned are not produced in German Europe. Germany, closely blockaded by the British Navy, is cut off completely from the overseas sources of supply which are freely available to Great Britain and the United . States. There are physical difficulties in the way of pouring supplies into Russia, but they have been promised and the pledges given by Britain and America will be carried out.

Convoys of laden ships are already being escorted by British warships to Russia, doubtless by the northern route to Murmansk and the White Sea. Measures are being taken to transport munitions to Russia by way of the Persian Gulf and across Iran. Cargoes from the United States and elsewhere are crossing the Pacific to Vladivostok. With rapid organisation the present trickle will become a steady flow and finally a great flood to help sustain the Russian armies in the “spring campaign” of which Lord Beaverbrook speaks confidently. SEA POWER AGAIN. After all, as Mr Churchill has reminded us more than once, “everything turns upon the Battle of the Atlantic.” After all, “the fate of this war is going to be settled by what happens on the ocean, in the air, and, above ail, in this island.” In order to win the war Hitler must destroy Great Britain. Hitler, who has scarcely ever seen the sea, fears Britain’s sea power. That is why since the first day of the war his Naval High Command has bent its energies upon the destruction of British shipping resources. What the U-boat campaign narrowly failed to do in 1917, Hitler and his naval advisers confidently hoped to accomplish this time. The German Naval Command has not hesitated to use its most powerful ships to support the campaign of the U-boats and aircraft against Britain’s merchant ships in the effort to cut off the supplies of foodstuffs, munitions and raw materials that must reach her across the seas. The losses in ships and tonnage have been very heavy, and vast as are the shipping resources she controls, these

losses could not continue indefinitely without seriously affecting her war effort and her means of subsistence, ON HITLER’S TRACK. But in recent months there has been a definite check to the ravages of Germany’s sea and air raiders and a great diminution in the losses of ships and their valuable cargoes. It cannot yet be said that the Battle of the Atlantic has been definitely won, but nevertheless a great measure of victory at sea has been achieved. If the losses can be held down, the great shipbuilding programmes of Great Britain and the United States as they develop rapidly will fill the gap and increase the carrying power at sea to the maximum requirements of the great flow of overseas supplies. There are many indications that the position at sea has . greatly improved. That Britain and the United States have pledged the maximum aid to Russia is an indication that the shipping can be found to carry the supplies without prejudice to their own needs in sea transport. British sea power will be the decisive factor in this war, as it was in 1914-18 and in Napoleon’s time. “Once we have gained the Battle of the Atlantic and are certain of the continuous flow of American supplies, then,” as Mr Churchill has said, “it is sure that, armed with the sword of retributive justice, we shall be on his track.”’—(S.D.W.)