Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1939. THE ALLIED PREPARATIONS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 September 1939, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1939. THE ALLIED PREPARATIONS.

TTXCEPT in Poland, where the defending armies are striving U gallantly and desperately to withstand and repel the onset of an enemy vastly better provided with aircraft and mechanical equipment of every kind, the conflict of nations now nt progress obviously is far from having approached the momentum it must speedily attain unless it is ended by a return to sanity on the part of the German nation—a development ot which as yet there are only tentative, though hopeful indications.

The Royal Air Force has already given proof of its quality in a valiant'onslaught on the German naval strongholds m the estuary of the Elbe and there has been some manoeuvring along the Franco-German border, between the fortified Maginot and Siegfried lines. What exactly is happening or is portended on the Western Front is far from being made clear, but even the overture has hardly been sounded as yet to the mighty clash of armed' forces that is in prospect. Much as the fog of war obscures the situation, it seems plain that the democracies are determined to give the German people every chance of considering how tjiey may escape from the disaster into which they are being driven by their dictatorship. Leaflets have again been showered on Germany by British aeroplanes and the French are reported to have made a demonstration of a similar kind in their approach to the Siegfried line and to have evoked a friendly response from the defending German troops.

A great deal of the information meantime available stands in need of confirmation and there are insufficient grounds as yet for ant icipating any very early and decisive development of the spirit of revolt that is credibly reported to be rising in Germany. An organised military tyranny is not easily'cast off even by a people to whom it has become hateful. The alternative to an effective uprising in Germany no doubt is a great and purposeful effort by the Allied democracies to develop such an attack as will give Poland a. measure of relief from the almost overwhelming pressure to which she is meantime subjected. Whatever else may be in doubt, it stands out plainly enough that if Poland is to be helped by an adequate diversion on the Western front or elsewhere, that help must be given speedily.