GERMAN ATTACK

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 September 1939, Page 5

GERMAN ATTACK

MAY MEAN VIOLATION OF NEUTRALITY INVASION OF HOLLAND POSSIBLE. VIEWS OF MILITARY EXPERTS. (Received This Day, 9.45 a.m.) NEW YORK. September 21. A “New York Times” Paris correspondent says that instead of a Allied attempt to storm the West Wall, the new phase of the war on the Western Front is more likely to be a German attempt at an .enveloping movement, necessitating violation of the neutrality of a small adjoining state. Some French military experts believe that the move may be through the Netherlands. With the blockade threat more definite daily, the German High Com-

manti must strike for a quick decision. An attempt on the Maginot Line cannot secure it, especially as the French have consolidated their positions • as much as fifteen miles beyond and dug trenches at the very outworks of the West Wall. It would be a long and hazardous task to try to drive them back. The French base their suggestion on an invasion of the Netherlands on the fact that the Netherlands fortifications arc improvised and that the country is also a good jumping-off place for aerial attacks. In Britain, however, it is considered that if the Germans took the serious step of violating neutrality, they would hope to obtain a decisive result which could only be obtained by engaging the opposing armies! It is recalled that the historic road for an invasion of France is the Oise Valley, entailing passing through Belgium or both Belgium and Luxembourg. Intense artillery fire continued along the Luxembourg border today. Belgian sources continue to. report a German concentration in the Aix-La-Chapelle region.