FEAR OF LONG WAR

Evening Star, Issue 23380, 25 September 1939, Page 7

FEAR OF LONG WAR

GERMANY'S GREAT WEAKNESS WANTS ALLIES TO TAKE INITIATIVE VITAL STRATEGICAL CONSIDERATIONS (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, September 24. (Received September 25, at noon.) " Scrutator," in the ' Sunday Times,' opportunely devotes an article to an elucidation of the Allied war policy. He frankly admits the rapid collapse of Poland was a great disappointment, and suggests that had Russia not intervened and had the Poles been able to hold on for another month (as there seemed every prospect of their being able to do), the Polish army might well have been able to turn the " notorious Polish mud " to good account against an immobilised German mechanical army. In a tribute to the Polish army, " Scrutator " says: " Whoever is to blame for the Polish collapse, it certainly is not the common soldier. The resistance at Warsaw and elsewhere shows of what splendid military material he is made."

Turning to the British and French policy, " Scrutator " says: " The foundation of victory is our complete command of the sea. Germany has made no secret of her fears —she wants a short war and is anxious not to be drawn into a long military struggle. Her present problem is the reverse of 1914. Then she had to force lines in order to win; now she hopes to win merely by defending her own and forcing us to attack." " Scrutator " suggests that the Siegfried Line, although not so strong or favourably placed as the Maginot Line, is far stronger than any German fortified position in the last war, and point 3 out that it can only be breached as the result of long and careful preliminary work. Any policy of mass frontal attack would be exactly what Germany would wish, and would be unlikely to lead to victory quickly or slowly. " Victory in a war consists not in inflicting a loss on the enemy, or even in the ratio of losses inflicted and received, but in convincing the enemy that he cannot possibly win."