A SECOND FRONT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 59, 29 May 1942, Page 4

A SECOND FRONT

THE agitation throughout the United Kingdom for the opening of a second front on the; Continent can be fully appreciated when it is understood that something like two million first line troops have stood to arms in that country for the past two years. The monotony of intensive training'ha? created a feeling of frustration which has been growing m the army and has now invaded the civilian population until with determined voice and gesture it has taken front rank prominence in the Imperial Parliament itself. The restless ness is further assisted by the constant stream of fresh overseas troops coming from Canada and America, young, fit, trained and eager to get at grips with the hated Nazi despoilers. The feelings of the Dutch, Belgian, Free French, Polish, Danish, Norwegian and Greek units now training m Britain can also be best imagined than described as they read of fresh atrocities being practiced on their oppressed and helpless countrymen. And so the cry goes up—"A Second Front; a Second Front." Such an undertaking would be likewise welcomed by the Dominions, especially those lying under the threat of Japanese invasion; for a hard-pressed Hitler would mean a hesitating and uncertain Japan and automatically the dwindling of the possibilities of extended action. But in spite of all the conjecture and surmise we can rest assured that when the time is ripe, the British hammer blow will be dealt and d.riven home. Britain, we must not forget has reason to exercise care and discretion as never before: in her history. She is profiting to-day from the experience of Dunkirk; her rulers have in mind the evacuations of Norway and Greece, and there are also the abortive plans of two Libyan campaigns. The great Churchill knows full well that this time it must be conclusive. The prestige of the Empire, already sadly undermined in the East cannot be allowed to slip any lower. Britain's next move must ibe overwhelmingly successful on landj, sea and in the air. With such momentous issues as the fate of the world in his hands, we, the peoples of Empire, naturally chargrined at the apparent delay and voluntary inaction though we may be, are not qualified to act as judges of this man who came forward as the nation's leader in one of the darkest hours in our history. The strategist who planned the Dardanelles campaign and the Sea-Lord who conceived Zeebrugge, is not the man to miss his chances now- Before we realise it we can rest fully assured that the news of Britain's reconquest of the Continent in Freedom's name will be flashed across the world to our impatient ears some time in the near future, when Germany has become hopelessly locked in the Russian embrace and Fascist Italy is reeling under reawakened and intensified warfare in the Mediterranean.