The Wanganui Chronicle. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1942. PRODDING OUR LEADERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 230, 30 September 1942, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1942. PRODDING OUR LEADERS

the leaders of the United Nations are engaged in the complicated task of conducting the war effort and endeavouring at the same time to outthink the enemies comprising the Axis group, there are some people who believe that they do a good service by prodding them to keep them from going to sleep. Speaking in Ottawa, Mr. C. K. Attlee said: “The Allied leaders don’t need prodding to open a second front. It is unnecessary to prod them because you can take it as certain that we are all working on plans for an offensive.” To aid Russia in her present struggle it is necessary to send supplies to her. Were those supplies not sent, then the ships and equipment that would be available would speed the opening of the second front in Europe. But just as the boy cannot have his penny and spend it, so the Americans and British cannot expend shipping and supplies in aiding Russia and at the same time use them in establishing a western front. The policy of sending supplies to Russia is sound, because if the eastern front holds up it will rob the Germans of that essential element which is time, before the winter sets in and slows down action in Russia.

The soundness of the present policy of aiding Russia can be tested by endeavouring to picture what would be the probable position of the Soviet to-day if no succour whatsover had been afforded her. As it is, the German equipment has been so superior that the invasion effort has been carried far, but had the Russians been less well equipped than they have been, and are now as a result of American and British help, Moscow would probably have been surrounded, Leningrad reduced to a ruin, Stalingrad a memory, and the Caucasus would be in the enemy’s possession. Under such conditions, would the establishment of a second front in July or August have been any compensation to Russia with her front smashed to pieces, her armies dissociated from each other, and the general plan of the defensive campaign demolished beyond repair? He would be a bold man who dare claim that it would be so.

The timing of the attack upon Western Europe is an allimportant decision, and people who are not in a position to see the problem in its entirety, are not in a position to pass judgment on those upon whose shoulders rests the responsibility for the conduct of the campaign. A surgeon engaged in the operating theatre is not in need of. nor is he helped by, the presence of a nagging parent of the patient: nor would the poking in the back of the man at the motor-ear wheel by a “back-seat driver” armed with an umbrella, improve the driver’s efficiency when negotiating a difficult corner and meeting an erratic driver. Naturally enough, the Russians would wish to see the second front established in order to draw off some of Germany’s strength, and their anxiety on that point is understandable. But the desirability of engaging the enemy in a two-front war is no secret: it has been obvious and acknowledged to be a truism since Bismarck’s time, and it is not likely to be lost from sight at this juncture. True, too, there are larges forces in the United Kingdom comprised of American, British and Canadian troops, and these troops must be engaged in effective operations as soon as they can successfully be so occupied. It all depends upon whether and when they can be successfully used, for there is only one chance with a life. Once it is closed it cannot be reopened. The Germans who are dying at Stalingrad will march no more. In order to use the vast army of Allied troops that are available, two elements must be available to a degree that is fully adequate: air power and sea power. The adequacy of air and sea power may not be temporary; it must be continuous unless wholesale disaster is to be encountered. Those who are charged with making the momentous decision in respect to the Allied invasion effort know that a tremendous responsibility rests upon them. They must be oppressed by the weight of that responsibility, for their decision will either send thousands of men purposelessly to their doom or it will bring the much-longed-for victory nearer to fulfilment at the earliest possible moment. Don’t prod the driver! Let everyone instead do his part in pushing the coach forward.