ALLIES PREPARED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20915, 15 October 1942, Page 3

ALLIES PREPARED

BEGIN OFFENSIVE GEN. SMUTS’ OPINION CAREFUL PLANS NEEDED (By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright.! (10.30 a.m.) LONDON. Oct. 14. “We have now reached the stage where the defensive can be replaced by an offensive and the war can be prevented from dragging on endlessly,” said the Prime Minister of South Africa, General J. C. Smuts, who has arrived in London for consultations and discussions. “So far we have been able, with very great difficulty, to hold our own defensively against overwhelming odds,” he added. “The switch-over will determine the outcome of the war. It therefore deserves the most careful planning. We have now reached a stage in the war which calls for a careful review of the course before us. I am convinced that with the resources we command victory should be ours if we follow the right strategy with the utmost energy. “This is a man-made war. The peace which follows should not prove beyond human capacity, beyond the untapped resources of wisdom, planning, forethought and goodwill which is still the portion of our race. I hope to have the opportunity of exchanging thoughts with the leaders on this most important of all .problems—the winning of the peace.” General Smuts said that, like other Dominion Prime Ministei’s, he had had frequent pressing invitations from the Prime Minister, Mr, Winston Churchill, to visit London. He did not come earlier because the circumstances were beyond his control. He was peculiarly tied down by his duties in South Africa, whex-e the political situation was very diffei’ent from the other Dominions. The position had been considerably eased in South Africa. His talks with Mr. Churchill in Egypt in August made it clear that there might be some advantage in further talks in London. General Smuts was received by the King at Buckingham Palace to-day and later lunched witli His Majesty.