STATE OF THE EMPIRE

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 200, 22 May 1944, Page 5

STATE OF THE EMPIRE

Pessimists Answered, Says Field-Marshal Smuts RELENTLESS OFFENSIVE (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, May 19. In a speech on the occasion of his receiving the freedom of Birmingham, Field-Marshal Smuts said he bad attended many Imperial conferences in the last 30 or 40 years, but he could recall none which compared with the latest Prime Ministers’ conference in the magnitude ot the issues raised or the spirit of mutual understanding which had preyailid throughout. . “We found our minds travelling in the direction of the same grand objectives, both in war and in peace,” he said. 'Essentially there was nothing left to differ about. Ido not think our Commonwealta has even been. in better shape than today. It is the answer to the pessimists. “This greatest political group that ever existed is nqt due to some mystic secret possession, some exclusive technique of which the rest of the world is deprived or. ignorant. On the contrary, it is founded on what is common to all of us, that common, decent, human nature which we all share.” Field-Marshal Smuts said that the assault on Hitler’s fortress in the west, which was really a third front, had alreadv begun in the biggest air attack in history. The issue of the great battle of Europe might not be decided by 'this' front or by either of the other two, but by all three combined. It would be a triangular attack which would end Nazidom. There might.be checks, setbacks, and pauses here arid there without upsetting the triangular operations as a whole which would remorselessly roll on and close in till nothing remained of Hitler’s fortress. “The attack will be a co-ordinated one in which all three will have an important role to play,” he said. “The Mediterranean front, which has already achieved such far-reaching results, culminating in the knock-out of Italy, may again prove pregnant for the final end. General Alexander's battle for Rome, already so brilliantly begun, should therefore be carefully watched.” Good Pacific Prospect. Field-Marshal Smuts said he was inclined to be more optimistic than many others about the duration of the Japanese war after Hitler was finished. The Japanese bases in the British and Dutch possessions and. the island chain north of Australia might all be by-passed from the Carolines and the Marignas, which were now under attack, to the Philippines, and the Japanese forces, if thus cut off, must wither like a branch cut from A tree and must surrender or perish. Nearer home Japan would then be forced to face combined British and American air and naval fleets, with results which anyone could foresee. After the destruction of her navy she might see herself forced to surrender or starve an-i burn to death. It was a terrible prospect for a hundred million people. Field-Marshal Smuts said that the understanding and co-operation between th? United States and the British Commonwealth was perhaps the most promising lasting development of this war. It might yet prove a turning-point in history and become the most valuable force behind a new world organization and world progress generally. But it must not exclude collaboration by'Russia. whose phenomenal rise need not frighten the world. She had her part to play in the new comity of nations.