WARTIME JOURNEY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 29 August 1942, Page 2

WARTIME JOURNEY

COMMENT ON MR CHURCHILL’S TOUR

PORTANT DECISION EXPECTED London, Aug. 26. With Mr Churchill not only safely back from his fourth hazardous wartime journey but already hard at work, there is a 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. But to admit the gravity of our position is no indication of faint-hearted-ness, and certainly Mr Churchill did not show depression after his journeyings. He looked in the pink of condition and radiated confidence.

Here was the nation’s leader, fresh from the desert battlefield where he 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 he told a bystander at Paddington Station, was that he was refreshed rather than tired, which, coupled with his reference in Cairo to forthcoming “great and decisive events,” should engender throughout the United Nations the same sober confidence that Mr Churchill told the Cairo correspondent he felt. MORE THAN WORDS NEEDED But confidence cannot be sustained by words alone, and 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 a continuing sense of an inadequacy in British military achievement at a time when our Russian allies face the supreme crisis—a sense which translates itself in a demand not for premature or ill-considered action, but for a strengthening of our military organisation and its better adapttion 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 home-coming, with General 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 will give his first public account of his journeyings to the House of Commons after the summer recess. The Prime Minister will be unable to give much detailed information about the secret conferences in which he was engaged, but he will present a general account of those events and, probably, will review the general war situation in the light of the personal knowledge he has gained during the tour, and will announce changes—if any. RUSSIA’S URGENT PERIL Mr Churchill is reported to be particularly impresesd by the Russians’ indomitable determination to fight on at all costs—a determination which he found inspired by a profound, 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 westward of the Don River elbow, which cost both sides dearly. Field—Marshal von Bock obviously realises that his tired armies—they have advanced some 300 miles, fighting continuously, since May—will be unable to maintain the pace indefinitely, and therefore he has thrown in everything available for the 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 blitz in which the Luftwaffe is employing at least 3000 planes, 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.—P.A. Special Correspondent.