Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1940. DAYS OF SORROW AND HOPE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 May 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1940. DAYS OF SORROW AND HOPE.

TT has been well said by Mr Harold Nieolson that recent 1 events, particularly those of the great battle m wh eh Alhed forces are now engaged in Northern France and FlandisJiar e toughened the nerves of the French and Bnttsh peoples . and that: “Sorrow is inevitable, but hope is also merlta^eis to be the final outcome of the British and French armies now struggling towaids the Chai coast has yet to appear, though it must appear in the veij near future. Fighting in any case against terrible odds and o front which has been breached anew and most dangerously by the act of desertion for which the King of the Belgians beais responsibility, these forces are in a position still of great dangei.

Some of them- -according to an Australian Minister, a considerable part of the British Expeditionary Foree-have already been withdrawn, though not without some naval and other losses. The best that can be hoped is that, with the aid of the Air Force and the Navy, both of them co-operating most valiantly with their comrades on land, the Allied. noi’thein armies may be enabled to withdraw in great part intact, by way of Dunkirk or from other points on the .coast. Any outcome of the battle now conceivable no doubt is bound to leave the enemy well placed, for the time being, to launch air attacks from short range on England.

Against any advantage that Nazi Germany has thus gained, or is likely to gain, there are to be set, however, the facts that this advantage is quite inconclusive and that it has been and is being gained at terrible cost. Thanks to the indomitable courage of the Allied armies and what have been called fan ly the almost miraculous achievements of the British and French air forces, the enemy has been condemned to pour out Ins strength in men and materials as if he were achieving the quick and decisive victory on which he is desperately intent, though that victory in fact is far beyond his reach. According to a French military spokesman, besides losing over planes since the invasion of the Low Countries began, Germany has lost 2,000 mechanised units out of a probable total ot 5,000. Moreover, the spokesman added, the Allies are causing the enemy huge losses of men, '“and this battle is proving by far the costliest Hitler has fought.”

At the most immediate view there is a great deal to be set against the peril in which the Allied forces in Northern France and Flanders admittedly stand at the present moment. Whatever fate may vet have in store for them, these 1 orees have made and are making their own full contribution to the enemy’s ultimate defeat. They have proved their superiority in fighting power and it may be hoped that they will in great part survive to continue the war, no longer handicapped by impossible odds in numbers and weight of material.

Even in this critical hour, it may be claimed with full confidence that all that is needed to ensure the complete and crushing defeat of Nazi aggression is that the Allied nations should continue the struggle in a manner worthy of the example set by their armies in the battle now being fought on the Northern front. Doing themselves .justice, free nations, with ample resources to draw upon, assuredly will not be overcome by a dictatorship which rests its power primarily upon the enslavement of the German nation and secondly upon the foul oppression, maltreatment and exploitation of subjugated peoples over whom its domination for the moment extends.