DATE ARRANGED?

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 168, 18 July 1942, Page 5

DATE ARRANGED?

Second Front May Open Earlier Than Expected

ASSURANCES TO RUSSIA Rcc. 2 p.m. NEW YORK. July 17. It may be that a British and American land offensive in Western Europe has been already decided upon, and that the date has been set much earlier than has been generally guessed, says Mr Arthur Krock in a dispatch to the New York Times from Washington. Mr. Krock points out that some observers in Britain have noted preparations and growing troop concentrations on which they base the suspicion that this is so. The New York Times in an editorial states: " To keep the Russians in being is of such vital interest to the British and ourselves that it is inconceivable that anything that can be done to relieve the pressure on Russia will be left undone. "M. Molotoff, Soviet Foreign Commissar, after visiting Ixmdon and Washington, returned to Moscow satisfied that Britain and the United States would do everything in their power to support Russia. There is no question, therefore, that the Soviet Government knows what to expect and when to expect it. Still less is there any question that the Russians are anv more anxious than ourselves that the blow from the west shall be delivered at the earliest possible moment."