GERMAN MORALE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 June 1942, Page 4

GERMAN MORALE

IN NEED OF BOLSTERING UP. GROTESQUE LIES ABOUT RUSSIAN LOSSES. The elimination of twenty million Russians by a simple declaration of a communique is taken by a writer in “France” (the French daily newspaper published in London) as a sign that German morale now needs a lot of bolstering up.' The declaration of such grotesquely’ huge Russian losses is all the more absurd, the writer points out, when it is remembered that the limit of mobilisation of a country can generally be only 10 per cent of the population, beyond which proportion it can. hardly go without the danger of bringing the economic life of the country to a standstill. And, if twenty millions of the Russian army have been eliminated, the writer’ asks, why do the Germans, according to their own communiques, have to "fight heavy battles to repulse Russian attacks? “Even the Germans themselves will not swallow this new effort of Dr. Goebbels or his chief,” says “France.” To the question, Why these fantastic figures’ the writer replies: “Because of the losses, suffered by every German family, the German people conclude that their total losses must be enormous. The authors of this latest communication, considered it would be a consolation for the people to believe that the adversary had lost more than they had. “On the eve of the spring offensive, furthermore, the German leaders are doing all they can to persuade their own people as well as . the Allies and neutrals that the coming task is not too big for them and that their attack will most surely be victorious.”