MOSCOW SHOCKED

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 275, 20 November 1943, Page 5

MOSCOW SHOCKED

PUBLIC BEWILDERED AT AEGEAN STRATEGY Recd. 11.50 p.m. London, Nov. 19. “The loss of Leros bewildered anU shocked the Moscow public, which had grown to believe that the Allied situation in the Mediterranean has passes the stage of such setbacks,” says the Moscow correspondent of The Times. Pointing out that Samos is the onl\ Aegean island remaining in Britisn hands, the Daily Telegraph’s military correspondent says:—“it is almost unfortified, wherefore it is defensible only with a very large force. Moreover, it is 30 miles north of Leros arid air cover is even more difficult. We may ask why our garrison was sent there and what is now expected Irom it. In fact, our whole strategy in the Aegean Sea is incomprehensible.” The correspondent declares: “Rhodes should nave been the Allies’ first objective, because the island would have provided aerodromes for lighter cover elsewhere. If the cap- 1 turn of Rjkodes was regarded as impossible, the" inaction in the Aegean would have been prelerable to a series of pet.lv landings carried out without hone effective support.”