The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 6th, 1939. SHADOWS OVER THE EMPIRE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 59, 6 September 1939, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 6th, 1939. SHADOWS OVER THE EMPIRE

FACED with the: grim realities of war as they exist in modern time the Empire is now definitely on guard against a.ll eventualities. This remarkable change of thought is separated by less tha,n five days from the sunny days of settled peace. We have followed the sequence of incidents step by step until the final and disastrous declaration of war. Today for New Zealanders the world presents a troubled field of dimly discernible factors relayed by the censors from the war office. Out of the chaos of action we can however draw the comforting reassurance that the well-laid plans of all three, arms of the military forces are proceeding without hitch or hindrance. The fleet, fully staffed a,nd equipped lies at the battle: stations appointed. The airforce is actively engaged already and the army is working in close conjunction witji our French allies'. The gallant Polish army which stood the first shock of the invading German hordes , will draw great heart from the fact that the Franco-British pressure on the Western front will relieve the threat to their own beloved country. But what of the world at large. Events have moved apace. The story of the first atrocity —the sinking of the Athenia has had a strong influence on the people of the U.S.A, subjects of that country having been aboard at the time. Will history repeat itself in the same idtamaltia manner as in 1917. Again the far east presents an interesting state of affairs in the action of Japan, the estranged ally of the Nazi state under the anti-Commintern pact, making overtures to Great Britian and suggesting the possibility of co-operation. The position of Italy the other member of the former Axis remains still .the enigma of the present situation. Will Mussolini risk the fate of his Empire by pitching his legions into the field and espousing Germany's cause?' The question is one which is uppermost in the .minds of the governhienits of belligerent countries to-day. In the face of_this possibility however it must be remembered, that the restless Empire of II Duce, is one which demands constant garrisoning. An outbreak in Abyssinia would in itself demand the major attention of the army, while, the Good Friday annexation of the Albanian Empire reminds us that Italy has reason to expect real trouble elsewhere. The Slovaks are also protesting vigorously against the use' of their country as a base from which to attack the friendly Poles. From the foregoing it would seem that Germany runs the very real risk of bringing about her the same enemy countries of the 1914-1918 struggle. But the thought uppermost in the minds of the new alliance against Hitler is that the recently absorbed countries into the body of the Greater Reich will on their own initiative seek deliverance from the oppressor and in league with those underground factions whiqh are known to exist in Germany herself combine to lift the tyrannical yoke of Nazism forever. These thoughts, while New Zealtfnd lies awaiting the decision of its government as to the part it shall play in the conflict, supply food for thought and lend colour to the oft repeated contention that the once feared German-Soviet padt is something of a boomerang that has created a permanent rift in the formidable Axis Powers.