The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY Ki, 1943. THE CASABLANCA CONFERENCE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 38, 16 February 1943, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY Ki, 1943. THE CASABLANCA CONFERENCE

that Mr. Churchill and President JRoosevelt have delivered their post-conference speeches, it is possible, to gather some idea of the subjects discussed and the decisions that were made at Casablanca. The foremost of those decisions was that the Allies would soon be passing to the offensive to a greater degree than has yet been the case. Very large commitments are involved in this decision, requiring the employment of large-scale transport services and almost unlimited supplies. The conferees, have been satisfied that their joint resources are adequate now to permit of large-scale operations being embarked upon and concluded during the next nine months. By the end of October of this year—that is after a summer and autumn campaign against the Axis forces—the Casablanca programme will have been fulfilled. Although neither Churchill nor Roosevelt has said so, it is probable that if the objective is realised the task of defeating the Axis will be nearly completed. It is, unfortunately, unwise to count, on a military programme being completed in accordance with the preconceived time schedule.

The second point upon which the 'conferees were resolved was that there should be no peace by negotiation. During the last war there were those who believed that the war could be brought to an early close by entering into negotiations with the enemy. Negotiations with the German Empire would have been dangerous because they would have reduced the set purpose of the Allies—the chief aim of those who launch “peace offensives” —and the negotiations would have resulted only in giving the enemy time to reform in order to be able to strike again. A negotiated peace with Hitler—a man at the head of a regime of professed and proven bad faith—would tp-day be more disastrous than would have been the case in 1917-18. The battles to be fought are not being engaged in for anyone’s glorification, but so that the average citizen the ■world over shall have security from mass molestation. A negotiated peace would result in the threat of mass molestation being continued. Realising this, the Casablanca conferees have decided that the war shall be prosecuted until the Axis Powers make an unconditional surrender.

Hitler, the would-be world conqueror, the leader of the Herrenfolk, has also delivered his last word. He has given up all dreams of success; his hopes now are to stave off defeat. Not an ambitious objective, truly. But at what cost to the German people will be his continued leadership? His chanticleer call is to fight to the last man, and to give them their due, the Germans obeyed their orders before Stalingrad. The result was that a million men were wounded and half a million lost their lives. A few generals surrendered. It is interesting to compare this result with that which flowed from the unconditional surrender which was demanded of Tripoli. There a few Fascists were imprisoned and the rest of the population carried on with their daily work as though nothing had happened. Indeed, local administrations functioned more freely after the unconditional surrender was made than it did before.

The Germans since the Casablanca conference have shown more than ever they did before, that they contemplate being defeated. Goebbels makes this admission when he denies its possibility. But those Germans who are residing in occupied territories know by unerring .instinct that their sojourn is drawing to its close, and they are packing up and preparing to depart. The Germans in Europe are commencing to huddle together. The fear complex is stimulating the herd instinct. The German High Command knows that the land attacks will fall on the extremities of three peninsulas: the Balkan, the Italian and the Scandivanian. Churchill’s visit to Turkey implies an attack through the Balkans, now seething with hatred against the Axis. The success attending the Eighth and the First Armies in North Africa stages a nutcracker movement against the Axis forces in Tunisia, after which an attack upon Sicily is the next natural step. The success attending the Russian armies in Europe makes it desirable that even larger convoys shall be sent to Murmansk from now on, which carries with it the implication that Norway must be cleared of Germans at the earliest morient. The Germans regard this last objective as their prime risk and, anticipating action by American and Canadian armies operating from Iceland, Northern Ireland and Scotland, they have placed the major surface and underwater naval strength in these northern waters. As a result of the Casablanca Conference the Germans have had this three-fold problem intensified. While contemplating this sorry situation in the West, the Russians are sweeping forward with gathering momentum. Strongpoint after strongpoint falls. German reverse follows so closely upon the heels of its predecessor that the whole plan of the campaign becomes confused in its detail Armies are being encircled; death is reaping a tremendous harvest; military organisation is becoming less and ess effective; and Hitler, now silenced, must contemplate whether lie shall have men without guns or guns without men. One thing and one thing alone, is a certainty in German minds to-day: They have sown, and they are now about to reap a terrible harvest of •ate. The only action which can save the peoples of the Axis countries from bearing the full burden of this dread harvest is to heed the resolution of the Casablanca Conference and make then- unconditional surrender before their internal organisation n/tl R O -' 1 ! 1 and i the 'V en S ln S hosts take possession of the whole ot the Reich and march down the Unter den Linden