FINAL ARBITER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 December 1939, Page 9

FINAL ARBITER

COMMAND OF THE SEA. VOICE OF NAVY LEAGUE. LONDON. December 1. This strange war is at the moment going very well for the Allies, says the editor of “The Navy," organ of the British Navy League. As we write there has been practically no movement by land. Ribbentrop and, later, Goering, have used a great many wild and whirring words designed (poor fools!) either to separate France from England, or to frighten the British Empire. But it is not words that will win this war. It is deeds. When we meet the German deeds we shall know how much value should be attached to them. We would not for a moment underestimate the valour of the German race. We would not under-esti-mate the brains of the German High Command. Certainly we would not under-estimate the cunning and depravity of the German mind —well attested in the latest and most shocking White Paper. We would not boast. But we may be sure that whatever the devil or man worketh against us shall be brought to naught. We have our quarrel just and. oddly enough' perhaps, we have our faith in God. remembering always that God helps those who help themselves. On the sea, we are convinced, this issue will be decided. In saying that we do not in the least ignore or belittle the tremendous efforts and the enduring courage that may be required on land and in the air. We, the Empire, fight this war as one. on sea, on shore, and in the air. We are the same men, whether we serve afloat or in the Army or in the Air Force, or even as wretched civilians condemned to confront the enemy without a weapon in our hands. We are the same men and women of the same race. On our qualities of confidence and patience and endurance depends the issue of the greatest battle yet joined between the forces of good and evil. But the sea is the final arbiter. So long as we hold the seas, so long as we can deny to the enemy the full use of the seas and their pathways, while keeping them free for ourselves, so long is it impossible for Germany, no matter what allies (if any) she may attract, to win this war. If once we were to lose command of the seas that would be the end of the British Empire and of the freedom of the British Isles. So long as we retain that command we make it impossible for the enemy to win, and we make it possible for our armies and our Air Force to knock out the enemy.