AIR OF EXPECTANCY

Evening Star, Issue 24286, 29 August 1942, Page 4

AIR OF EXPECTANCY

IS BIG MOVE IMMINENT ?

MR CHURCHILL HARD AT WORK

(N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent.)

LONDON, Aug. 2G. With Mr Churchill not only safely back from Ids fourth hazardous wartime journey, but already hard at work, there is general expectation throughout London that important decisions are imminent. No competent observer here seeks to conceal the stark truth that the military situation confronting all the United Nations is serious, and does not show any immediate sign of getting better. To admit the gravity of our position however, is no indication of faintheartedness. Certainly Mr Churchill has not shown any sign of depression after his journeyings; he is in the pink of condition and radiates confidence. It is important to remember that the nation’s leader has come fresh from the desert battlefield, where lie viewed at first hand the military position, and from war-torn Russia and the secret Moscow conferences, where presumably M. Stalin did not hold back information about Russia’s ability to continue resistance against the Nazis and strike back. His reaction, as bo told a bystander at Paddington station, was that he felt refreshed rather than tired, which, coupled with his Cairo reference to forthcoming “ great and decisive events,” should engender throughout the United Nations the same sober confidence that he told Cairo correspondents he felt. DEMAND FOR ACTION.

But confidence cannot be sustained by words alone. That is why the popular demand for action continues. As ‘The Times’ remarks: “Neither the Dieppe dress-rehearsal nor the progressive bombing of the western nerve centres of Nazi war production has relieved the continuing sense of an inadequacy in British military achievement at a time when our Russian Allies face a supreme Crisis—a sense which translates itself into a demand, not for premature or ill-considered action, but for the strengthening of our military organisation and its better adaptation to meet the present emergencies.”

Some observers express the opinion that a radical overhaul of Britain's supreme war direction is likely to follow Mr Churchill’s homecoming, with General Sir Archibald Wavell again emerging from the comparative obscurity of the India command to occupy a prominent place. The fact that General Wavell accompanied Mr Churchill to Moscow is regarded as significant.

Mr Churchill wilhgivo his first public account of bis journeying® to the House of Commons after the summer recess. The Prime Minister will bo unable to give much detailed information about the secret conferences in which he engaged, but will present a general account of those events and probably review the general war situation in the light of personal knowledge gained during bis tour, and announce changes—if any.

RUSSIANS’ DETERMINATION

Mr Churchill is reported to be particularly impressed by the Russians’ indomitable determination to fight on at all fcosts—a determination which he found inspired by a profound and unquenchable hatred of the enemy. The Russians certainly need that inspiration. The battle for Stalingrad has worked up to a climax this week after more than a fortnight’s bloody delaying action to the west of the Don River elbow, which has cost both sides dearly. Field-Marshal von Bock obviously realises that bis tired armies—they have advanced some 300 miles, fighting continuously, since early in May—are unable to maintain the pace indefinitely. Therefore be has thrown in everything available for a supreme blow aimed at over-running the lower Volga area, thereby hoping to crown one of the mightiest offensives throughout history. Preceded by a concentrated blits, in which the Luftwaffe is employing at least 3,000 planes, the German spearheads are within 35 miles of the city, the loss of which would be the most serious blow Russia has yet suffered, and would intensify the need for counter-action from Britain and America.