ALLIED UNITY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20069, 16 October 1939, Page 8

ALLIED UNITY

COMMON FATE i SHARING TASKS PUBLIC APPRECIATION ANSWER TO CRITICS i EFFORTS OF BRITAIN , “THE FIRST VICTORY” I i (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) ! (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 1 p.m. RUGBY, Oct. 15. I Much is being made in German ! agency repors of passages appear- ! ing here and there in French news- : papers which give an impression of voicing disappointment or dissatisfaction with: the character or scale of the. British military assistance to France. The French press, like the British I butTmlike the German, is free and ; British and Frenclu newspapers _ ex- ! pressing varied independent views contain any opinion and comment both well-informed and less well-inform-ed. and' considered and less well considered. Extracts from French newspapers chosen by the Nazi propagandists could well be matched l in substance and surpassed in vigour by the comment in certain English newspapers, but it would not serve the purpose of the Germans to reproduce it. ! Nor incidentally, in the case either of the French or the British press, does such comment reflect responsible or generally prevalent opinion. It is understood by the public, both here and in France, as it long has been well understood between the twe Governments that the roles of twc. | countries in war, determined as they must be by historical, geographical! and economic factors, cannot but be identical. Anglo-French Approval

The form and extent, of the British military intervention on trie Continent'rias been clearly expounded in the speeches in the House of Commons by the Secretary for War, Mr. | L. Hore-Belisha, on the army estimates and in oilier pronouncement!: which have been the subject, at the time, of approving notice in both countries. In Britain the Military Service Act has made all fit males between the age of 18 and 41 years liable to be called up and although at present only the 20 and 21-year age groups are being registered for immediate training to supplement the numbers already under arms, approximately 1.000,000 men, volunteers up to the military age limit, are being enrolled simultaneously. Mr. Hore-Belisha revealed last week that since the outbreak of war 50,000 volunteers have been accepted. Assured of Endorsement The British and French authorities are assured of the endorsement of the best-informed opinion in both 'countries if, in a war not of their seeking, they practise what “Scrutator” in the Sunday Times to-day calls "wise economy of manpower,” and this in the field and in such operations as those of the French in the Saar to which this writer was referring, but on the ecomonie and industrial front as well. In the latter sense wise economy means well-thought out and planneo cntrolled of the dispositionofthe o control of the disposition of the available resources of manpower. As Mr. Hore-Belisha declared last Wednesday referring to the haphazard recruiting and drafting of skilled men out of industry into the army in the last war, “experience has taught, us to avoid many errors of the last occasion ” To a mentality which takes little account of the (deeper politicostrategic considerations and is aptly expressed in the catch phrase “this is a funy war,” the transport of 158,000 men to France with the vast equipment of a modern army and the. installation of the base and lines of communication, may not oe an achievement 'of" a sufficiently spectacular character to give satisfaction, but a true’’ estimate of their significance is the statement by a French military expert That it ranges with the greatest" military feats and is the “first victory for the Allies in the ’war.”