SECRET OF RUSSIA S SUCCESS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 179, 1 August 1941, Page 5

SECRET OF RUSSIA S SUCCESS

BEATING THE NAZIS WILL NOT PLAY THE WAR LORDS’ GAME BRITAIN UNDERRATED SOVIET POWER (Recd. 8.40 p.m.) London, July 30. The secret of the excellent performance of the Red Army is that it simply refused to play the game as laid down by the Nazi warlords, says Frank Owen, editor of the Evening Standard, in an article criticising the British leaders, who underrated Soviet military power, and who have delayed active assistance for Russia. Mr. Owen says that when the panzers break through the Russians behave like a self-sealing aeroplane tank. They close up and absorb the bullet. The truth is plain enough. For 20 years the Russians have devoted 25 per cent, of all their wealth to the army. For 20 years they rehearsed defence against attack from just the quarter from when it would come. Finally, the Russians taught their people total war, while Hitler merely taught his barbarians total destruction. The physical development of the Soviet was there for everyone to see. Did nobody from ollicial Britain see this and recognise what it was. If someone had, surely we should not be now gaping at the Russian effort. We should be throwing in every ounce of a ' v. e could give this magnificent

ally. Military observers in Britain might come at any moment and argue that the surest way of dealing with invasion is to send every ounce of aid possible to Russia, and so create a two-front war. Why, observers ask. should britain. lull herself into complacency with a belief that the R.A.F. can smash, or even seriously impair, Germany’s war industry within a few weeks when the German Air Force could not smash Britain’s industries in nearly a year?—U.P.A.