The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, JANUARY 20th, 1941. THE WAITING GAME.

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 260, 20 January 1941, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, JANUARY 20th, 1941. THE WAITING GAME.

Newsprint Arriv.ee. The fact that despite raiders and other difficulties it is still possible to import fairly large quantities o£ newsprint was demonstrated last Friday when a 4-ton shipment of this very necessary commodity arrived "from Canada in response to an early order from the BEACON Company. i Three Blind Mice. An Ohope housewife industriously engaged in making jtom met with a startling discovery when collecting her jam jars from the cupboard i® which she kept them. Three of the tallest contained a live mouse apiece. The- captives had apparently fallen in and were unable to escape owing! to the steep and slippery sides.

PROM our small corner of Empire, the vast struggle the outcome of which will spell the destiny of mankind for untold centuries, appears like a gigantic stage-play the: realty of which is only borne home by those incidents of a personal nature which cramp our industrial activity or cause private grief through the loss of loved ones. But the grim game overseas was never grimmer., and in spite of the semi-comedian flavour of the German propaganda machine, there can. be no mistaking the sinister threat to our freedom or the ghastly price which we may have to pay for its retention. Whakatane;, a tiny unit in one of the smallest of the British colonies watches in a superficial manner the progress of the war, Home Guard and Women's Auxiliary movements assisting towards creating the correct atmosphere which every patriotic person desires to see more of. Stocktaking of a dispassionate kind, however shows the position overseas to have assumed one of those ominous lulls, which if ordinary procedure follows out, is the prelude to a storm of unparalleled violence. The Libyan front has died down preparatory to the plan of operation for the capture of Tobruk to be completed. It is this unhurried campaign of General Wavell which has made for its astonishing success. We await the outcome with patience and the fullest confidence. The grip of winter has slowed up the Albanian campaign, where the Greeks have been, content to forgo the battle cry "Tirana by Christmas" for the less ambitious one of 'Albania for the Albanians" with no actual date in mind. The Bulgarian-Turko alliance also is likely to place some restraint of the ambitions of Hitler with regard, to the Balkans. But on the European front, despite the desultory raids on Britain and the smashing; hammer-blows given in return by the R.A.F. there is nothing other than the groaning of the enslaved peoples under the Nazi yoke. What is gojing to happen? It is safe to gamble that the German Dictator cannot afford to be idle while he straddles half Europe. He has achieved conquest after conquest by brutality and has consolidated them by fear. It is only by perpetuating this fear that he can hope to maintain his position, and like the Hun, Atilla of old* must keep on the move, by occupying his soldiers., and giving tliem fresh amusements and glory, and terrorising the peoples he' has already enslaved). Only thus is he secure. Stalemate spells, disintegration and restlessness within the ranks of tyranny, even when the tyrants are disciplined . There is something hatching in ambition-crazed brain of Adolf Hitler, and just what that something is will be made very plain to the world in the very near future. Hitler has reached the stage where he cannot stand still or the decline of power sets in The first reverse will collapse his prestige in the same manner that it has Mussolini's. The Dictator must see the danger a,nd on the horns of a dilemna, is toying; with the alternatives he has in mirkl, either by concentrating on the forlorn Conquest of Britain, a plan which for the German people at any rate has lost much of its glamour, or he must divert his widespread forces and succour his lamented ally, who instead of being a tower of strength, has become a millstone, that has dragged the Axis prestige into the mud. The most puzzled nation in the world to-day is Japan. Where to jump and land safest is the burning question confronting the military-biased Diet. But even the never-con-quered Children of the Rising Sun, feel that perhaps it would be wise not to. be too flambouyant in the face of America's obvious seriousness. In fact if it were not for 'face' (that intangible expression of prestige of the Orient) it would not be difficult to persuade the peoples of the Mikado to link up with their traditional allies the British Commonwealth of Nations. It is indeed possible that the queer twists of fate will yet make for such an alliance in view of the dark threat from the Soviet which cannot be disregarded. Britain's terms for such a union will of course depend solely on the satisfactory conclusion of the 'China incident" and reparations in that connection. The above brief survey will show the situation as it appears from the untroubled South Pacific where the course of the conflict can only be followed as the result of the news flashed from all quarters of the globe, yet which, because of this, it is probable to gain better perspective than it would be in countries actually in the forefront of battle.

Cricket Postponed. * Tlie represetnative match between the Rotorua and Rangitatiki Representative elevens was again postponed owing to rain which fell throughout the day at Rotorua.