CHANGE IN ALLIED STRATEGY

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 243, 15 October 1942, Page 5

CHANGE IN ALLIED STRATEGY

SMUTS SAYS WE ARE READY. THE WINNING OF THE PEACE.

P.A. Cable.

LONDON, Oct. 13.

"We have now reached the stage where the defensive can be replaced by the offensive and the war can be prevented from dragging on endlessly," said FieldMarshal Smuts, Prime Minister of South Africa, who has arrived in London for consultations and discussions. "So far," he added. "we have been able with very great difficulty to hold our own defensively against overwhelming odds. "The switch-over will determine the outcome of the war, and therefore deserves 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 and beyond the untapped resources of wisdom, planning, forethought and goodwill, which are still the portion of our raee. I hope to have an opportunity of exchanging thoughts with the leaders on this most important of all problems — the winning of the peace." Field-Marshal Smuts said that, like other Dominion Prime Ministers, he had had frequent pressing invitations from Mr Churchill to visit London. He did not come earlier, because of circumstances beyond his control. He was peculiarly tied down by his duties in South Afica, where the political situation was very different from the other Dominions. The position had considerably eased in South Africa. His talks with Mr Churchill in Egypt in August had made it clear that there might be some advantage in further talks in London.