INVASION THREAT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 September 1940, Page 5

INVASION THREAT

FAILURE OF NAZI PLANS

COMMENT IN NEUTRAL COUNTRIES.

STRENGTH OF THE BRITISH DEFENCES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, September 2. A message from Istanbul says that, the people of Turkey are thinking that something must have gone wrong with the Nazi plans for invasion, It is more than a month since their German friends told them that an invasion of Britain would take place at any moment.

The people of Turkey are also recalling that when Hitler went to his Western Front headquarters two weeks ago the German Press gave the matter great publicity and suggested that a final victorious campaign was about to begin. Shortly afterward Hitler returned to his Bavarian hide-out and nothing further has been heard of him. Even in Japan there is scepticism about the possibility of an invasion of Britain. A Japanese naval commentator has expressed the belief that Britain is impregnable. He declares that the Germans. will never be able to land troops while Britain commands the sea, and that Hitler’s air power is not strong enough to defeat the British Navy. Some observers are wondering whether a march of Gorman troops through Rotterdam yesterday may be regarded as a prelude to an invasion of Britain, but it is thought more likely that the march through the Dutch city was designed to cow the Dutch people. Proof that Britain is leaving nothing to chance in the event of invasion is seen in the fact that even the Shetland Isles, like the mainland, have now been put into a state of defence. Most of the work has been done by the islanders themselves, who have filled whale-oil drums with sand and built strong points along the beaches. These remote but important islands are as ready to repel an invader as any other part of Britain. Elsewhere in Britain defences against invasion are being made stronger every day.