Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, JUNE 3, 1940. A STAGE IN CONFLICT.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 June 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, JUNE 3, 1940. A STAGE IN CONFLICT.

1 TERRITORIALLY, the outcome of the long-continued and furiously contested battle for the Channel coast obviously favours Nazi Germany. With the Low Countries, the enemy has occupied, or is in a fair way to occupy for the time being, a fairly considerable area of French territory, including coalfield areas and manufacturing centres. These enemy gains are not least important as a vantage-point for attack on England. This being said, however, it remains true that the Germans are far from having achieved, even in the immediate area of conflict, the degree of victory on which their hopes were set and for the sake of which they made unsparing and costly sacrifices of men and material.

Thanks to their own valour and skill in fighting a series of rearguard actions which will fill a noble page of history, and to the magnificent co-operation of their air and naval forces, the Allies have escaped the envelopment on which German hopes were set. Against all enemy claims regarding the disintegration of the British Expeditionary Force and more to a similar effect, there is placed the heartening news that some four-fifths of the British Expeditionary Force, together with some French and Belgian troops, have been withdrawn by way of the shattered but still formidably defended port of Dunkirk and are safe in England. It may be taken for granted that the British Commander-in-Chief, Lord Gort, would not have returned, as he has, to England, had not the task of withdrawal been carried far towards completion.

Anxiety remains as to the fate of Allied troops yet to be extricated from a position of great peril—amongst them the gallant. French forces, led by General Prioux, which blasted a way through the German lines from the south and are now reported to be holding a post of danger and honour in the rearguard covering Dunkirk. Even now, however, the commanding fact is that the armies which the enemy hoped to envelop and capture or destroy have been in great part extricated. The Allies inevitably have suffered heavy losses, both of men and material, but it has yet to appear that their losses are. as heavy as those of the enemy. Where aircraft and their crews and mechanised weapons and personnel are concerned, there does not seem to be any doubt that the enemy has suffered very much heavier losses than he has inflicted.

New reaches are about to open in the war and the possibility is in sight that the' demands made on the courage and resources of the Allies may be intensified by the appearance of new enemies. Tn meeting all that may yet befall, there is inspiration tube drawn from the dogged and unyielding valour, going hand in hand with gallant enterprise, exhibited by the Allied land, air and sea forces in the battle for the Channel coast. If any further incentive were needed to resolute and unremitting effort it. might be found in the unbridled savagery the enemy has brought to bear upon his military effort, not least in the revolting murder of women and children and other helpless refugees.