WAR TOPICS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 131, 4 March 1940, Page 5

WAR TOPICS

U.S.A. PEACE PLANS FIGHTING ON FINNISH FRONT (J3y the BEACON Watchman) For some days there has been conjecture concerning the real mission to Europe of Mr Sumner Welles, U.S.A. Assistant-Secretary of State. A statement by this gentleman's superior. Mr Cordell Hull, explains it to some extent. He said that Mr Sumner Welles was to conduct conversations with neutral countries for the purpose of determining an equitable economic basis for peace after the Avar has ended. The programme so far carried out includes a visit to Italy and conversations with Mussolini; a visit to Zurich and his present conversations in Berlin.

Though stated to be concerned with plans for world reconstruction when the war has ended the message from Rome relative to Mr Welles* mission inferred that there were more immediate issues at stake. The Rome radio stated that the American Envoy's visit to Cor.nt Ciano (Italian Foreign Minister) and Signor Mussolini changed the Italian public's attitude to the mission rather al ruptly Iron comparative indifference to lively inUriest.

It does not seem likely that Italian opinion would change so suddenly for anything but Italy's advantage. The only explanation, should Mr Cordell Hull's statement be taken as strictly accurate, is that Italy is tentatively promised territory or concessions in the post-war allocations. Meanwhile, authorised Nazi sources in Berlin have damped Foreign hopes and one newspaper declares that a three-point conference covering the formation of a new, smaller Polish State, self-government for Bohemia and the Czechs, and disarmament conditionally on restoration of German colonies is inconceivable without a correction of ce.a tunes' long wrongs. Mr Welles has some job ahead of him. • • • ■ Some day another Tennyson will come to light and will chronicle in verse the gallant deeds of the very small Finnish Army. It is more than amazing, this David checking Goliath, yet it would be difficult to find a fitting adjective. At the risk of boring wUk information commonly known (or is it?) Finland has, or had, a population slightly exceeding 3% millions. Russia was credited with just over 170 millions. Continuing the statistics, just in case those quoted are not sufficiently impressive, while Finland, by calling on every man capable of bearing arms at all, can, j place 500,000 men in the field, Russia could mobilise 12,000,000. The Finns are holding their own against those odds! It Is not suggested, of course, that Russia has called up 12 million men or that anything like a quarter of that figure is engaged on the 1-innisii front. The point is that Finland, with a population comparison of about 1 to 45 and sn effective military strength of 1 to 24, is perf« rrilng a feat destined to go down in all military history.

In one of their latest communiques the Finns claim to have shot down 521 Russian 'planes and destroyed or captured 1310 tanks since the outbreak of war. Either the Finns are super-human or the Russians .have been vastly over-rated in the last few years. Fighting is continuing on all fronts in Finland and particularly heavy engagements have occurred in the Lake Ladoga sector. This area has been strongly attacked and strenuously defended since the first Russian advance. A hi.ge battle is reported to be raging in the Petsamo area and this iccalls the fall of this town when Russian parachutists descended behind the skele ton Finnish force and captured the city. Subsequently the Finn* retook Petsamo and have held it since. '*» • • Was it not one of Erich Maria Remarque's characters in "All Quiet on the Western Front" who said: "Why must Ave fight? If I had my wav the politicians responsible would be dragged into an arena in their shirt-tails and made to fight it out with clubs." What he meant, of course, was that he did not see why he should have to kill men as good as himself. Since it has developed into an issue where sentiment counts tor nothing, those who observed before: "Isn't war wrong when wc have to shoot chaps as good as we?" will just have to carry on. The chance has been given to German youth to cry quits. The Allies navi stood quietly behind the Magi not Line and the Royal Air Fore, though presented with innumerable opportunities, has not bombed Lcrmnny. Even military objectives have been immune. Germany cannot claim similar credits and her soldiers, sailors and airmen, particularly the latter two, have demonstrated that ,they are not unwilling for war. If there had been a desire on the part of German youth to call war by its right name, and thus avoid it the opportunities presented on countless occasions would have been accepted. , The men should know that if Allied ships were not torpedoed, or gunned or bombed, there would be no war. II might mean a trilling loss of prestige for their Fuehrer, but hi* loss would be their gain in the eyes of the world. It is perhaps, ns with ns, patriotism that prompts their actions. Wc know that we arc fighting for a just caU se—the preservation uf democracy and freedom. What we must appreciate is that people like ourselves, in Germany, may feel that they, also, are fighting for justice or, as the German radio claims "every night, 'for the removal of an injustice.*

The position is adequately summed up in the words ol Viscount Halifax when addressing a gathering at Oxford University last week. "What has been the driving force behind the Nazi movement?" he ask ed. It had been German youth. Deliberately deprived as they had been of elements of true judgment, it was they who made the movement and still sustain it. "The;-: point of view stands in stark opposition to yours. "They do not understai. ' your way of thinking. Your ideals mean nothing to them. They have their own ideals which to our minds are distorted and deformed, but lor which hundreds of thousands of them are prepared, without a moment's hesitation, to sacrifice their lives." ja* » » The suggestion that Norway may halt trade with. Britain because of the Altmarck affair, appears to con template a willingness to penalise herself rather severely. In each of the years 1937 and 1938, for whicli (Continued foot next column).

complete figures are available, Norway's exports to the United Kingdom were in excess of £11,000,000 sterling, which was equal to about 21 per cent of her export trade. The country's imports from Britain were £8,900,000 in 1937, £7,500,000 in 1938. Re-exports to Norway from Britain in each year amounted to several hundreds of thousands of pounds, but the favourable balance to Norway remained considerable. In addition, the Norwegians earn considerable sums from their merchant marine. In 1937 these earnings, of about 750,000,000 kroner, were almost equal to the total of exports of Norwegian goods This trade would be sfevrrly damaged if it had to be redirected. The things that Norway sends to Britain are not things she -would readily dispose of elsewhere. They consist of wood pulp, soft wood, calcium, carbide, paper and cardboard, fish, iron and steei.