EFFORT TO DIVIDE ALLIES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 245, 17 October 1939, Page 7

EFFORT TO DIVIDE ALLIES

NAZI PROPAGANDA BRITISH PARTICIPATION IN FRANCE SOME FRENCH COMMENT* QUOTED [ British Official Wireless | RUGBY, Oct. 15. Much is being made in German agency reports of passages appearing here and there in the French newspapers which give the impression of voicing disappointment or dissatisfaction with the character of the scale of British military assistance. The French Press, like the British, but unlike the German, is free and the British and French newspapers are expressing varied and independent . views and contain opinion and com- ■ ment, both well-informed and less : well-informed, and considered and less well-considered. The extracts from the French newspapers chosen by the Nazi propagandists could we\ be matched in substance and surpassed in vigour by comment in certain English news- 1 papers, but it would not serve the purpose of the Germans to reproduce it. Nor, incidentally, in the case of either the French or British Press does such comment reflect the responsible or generally prevalent opinion. It is understood by the public, both her and in France, as it has loj: : been well understood between the two i Governments, that the roles of the j two countries in war. determined as I they must be by historical, geographi- i cal and economic factors, cannot be | identical. French Advance The military correspondent of the Swiss newspaper National Zeitung, says that the most amazing feature of the war in the west is that the Germans have done nothing to prevent the arrival of the Allied armies in positio > . the organisation of lines of communication, and the mobilisation of war industries. Germany’s opponents, this writer points out. finished these movements with precision and calf of manoeuvres and thus it is now too late to hinder them. In the same paper a picture is presented of the Siegfried Line as intact and unscathed by the French bombardment. It is not doubted here that Germany would have preferred the French to launch frontal attacks producing large casualty lists, but the British are at one with the French in realising that military operations are not the most important part of the war effort in its early stages. Conducting a methodical war, the French have achieved at a very small cost in casualties results the great value of which cannot be gauged merely in terms of the depth of penetration. Saarbrucken is an important railway junction and the fact that it has now been surrounded on three sides and that all roads and railways are under the fire of powerful French artillery solidly established on the surrounding heights, is as of as great value strategically as the capture of the town. The significance of the French advance. of course, goes far beyond immediate local results. It is apprec.i- , ated in Britain that the presence of i French troops on Germans soil has j deeply affected the morale of the i Rhineland population. More than . 2.000.000 souls have been evacuated ; from this region -and this manitesta- | tion of the power of the enemy in j their own territory—an experience ; Germans have not endured in the pro- i gress of a war for more than a ren- 1 tury. | Economic consequences of the French advance have also been seen to be of first importance. Saai industries brought to a standstill arc depriving Germany of as much coal and iron as she obtained from Polish Silesia. With these solid achievements to the credit of their arms, as well as the growing mastery of the sea and air the Allies are not likely to fall prey to discord, the possibility of which Nazi propagandist, by their racier clumsy methods, suggest. The form and extent of British ' military intervention on the Continent has been clearly expounded in the ( House of Commons speeches of Mr. : Leslie Horc Befisha. Minister of War. on the Army estimates and in other ! pronouncements, which have been subject at the time of approving notice in both countries. In Britain the Military Service Act has made all fit males between the ages of 18 and 41 liable to be called up and, although at present only the 20-21 age groups are being registered for immediate training to supplement the number* already under arms, approximately 1.000,000 men. volunteers up to the j military age limit, are being enrolled | simultaneously. ENEMY PROPAGANDA IN SOUTH AFRICA FUND TO FIGHT IT i Received Oct. 16. 10.50 p.m. LONDON. Oct. 16. ! The Johannesburg correspondent of ■ The Times says that well-known persons throughout the Union have ■ launched an appeal for £200,000 to de- ( feat enemy propaganda. DUCE MELTS ARMY LEADERS TO STRENGTHEN ARTILLERY Received Oct. 16, 5.5 p.m. ROME, Oct. 15. Signor Mussolini had a long conference with the Italian Secretary for War and army leaders. It is reported that II Duce ordered the Italian artillery to be strengthened. three times as great as the German, even if the Germans push the output of their factories to the extreme limit, according to a semi-official statement in Paris. The French production will be five times as great as in peacetime.