SECOND FRONT

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 261, 3 August 1942, Page 5

SECOND FRONT

Demand In Britain Unabating PLEDGES TO RUSSIA RECALLED (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received August 2, 9.15 p.m.) LONDON, August 1. The demand for a second front in Europe to aid the hard-pressed Russians shows no signs of abating. A member of the House of Commons, Mr. Granville, in a speech at Portsmouth said: “We shall seek a secret session in the next series of sittings to discuss Russia’s position. If our pledges to Russia are being carried out, why JI. Litvinov’s recent appeal in America?” , . .. John Gordon, in an article in the “Sunday Express” says: "What holds us back is the vital divergence between those believing that wars aie won by fighting tooth and nail with what you have got and those wanting to wait till the largest army we can ever hope to put into the field is com plete to the last button. There is a good deal too much timorous talk in •this country about the possibility of failure. Wars are won by men who go into them with the determination to make failure impossible." Reuter’s Moscow correspondent says the Russian man in the street has been expecting a second front ever since the British-Russian Treaty was announced. Civilians, peasants and soldiers are looking to the Allies with a certain amount of bewilderment, if not with feelings verging on bitterto Paris radio, JI. Laval informed the Vichy Cabinet that the second front Stalin demands will not find complicity in France. The Vichy correspondent of the Stockholm newspaper "Dagens Nyheter” says Laval is preparing ruthlessly to put down any French attempt to aid an Allied invasion. Addressing a United Nations demonstration, Lady Astor said: “I am grateful to the Russians, but they are not fighting .for us. They are fighting for themselves. After the Battle for Britain, it was America who came to our aid. The Russians were then allied with Germany. It is only now that they are facing the Germans that they come into the fight. To hear people talk, you would think the Russians came to us in our dire need —nothing of the kind. It was America, and don’t you forget it.” GERMAN PRECAUTIONS Defences Of Belgium Being Strengthened (British Official Wireless.) . RUGBY, August 1. Though the Germans have declared that the possibility of the /lilies establishing a second front is negligible, they are busy strengthening the defences of Belgium, according to information which has reached London. New premises have been established for German soldiers at Jlalines and Nivelles. Aerial barrages have been created by means of captive balloons held together by thin steel cables which would be invisible to airmen. Camouflaged batteries have been equipped with guns which can be used to lire to the sea or inland. In sectors considered most exposed to attack, various alarm posts have been installed. ■