Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1940. A MEETING OF DICTATORS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 October 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1940. A MEETING OF DICTATORS.

A. GOOD many people naturally are speculating as to what Hitler and Mussolini had to say to one,' another at theilr latest meeting on the Brenner Pass —their hour of eating and hour of talking, as an overseas commentator lias called it. Much of this speculation starts from an assumption that the dictators met to discuss or agree upon some new extension of aggression. The best reason for supposing that they may in fact have done so is that Germany and Italy are both faring badly in the aggression in which they are at present engaged.

It will be four months on Thursday since Italy entered the war, hoping' to share in the spoils of victories to which she had made no contribution. Apart from the collapse of France, which plainly had become inevitable before Italy took the plunge, the. events of these four months have followed a course that must strike fear and dismay into the hearts of the dictators'and those who support them in their war on free humanity. The enemy Powers undoubtedly hoped to continue and round off a career of conquest, but instead they have been cheeked and defeated to an extent which almost certainly means that their complete overthrow is a matter of time.

Instead of invading and conquering Britain, Germany has failed to make any impression on the defences of the Mother Country.- She has failed, too, 1o damage or destroy more than a percentage of Britain’s seaborne trade. It has been demonstrated decisively and unfailingly that the Royal Air Force is greatly superior in fighting power to the numerically superior enemy air formations. This has been made manifest, not only in the tremendous toll taken of German air forces attacking Britain, but in the blows that are being struck at Germany, with deadly and ever-increasing effect, in her home territory and in the territories she has occupied, by British bombing squadrons.

Italy during these fateful months, has been little more than a passenger in the Axis coach. Her boasted navy has distinguished itself only by running away. She has been outfought heavily in the air. It has yet to appear that she will venture to press the invasion of Egypt, in 'which thus far she has taken only preliminary steps. Iler solitary achievement, if such a term can be justified, is the occupation of British Somaliland.

Whatever the dictators may have talked about in their meeting at the Brenner Pass, they were at all events faced by a record of failure and progressive defeat. It is, of course, so much the more likely on that account that they may have agreed upon some new and desperate throw in the hop? of averting the fate by which they are visibly menaced. For international criminals of the type of Hitler and Mussolini there is no safety in withdrawal or retreat. They must go forward in their chosen way of aggression, or collapse in ruin and disaster.

Account thus has to be taken of the likelihood, of some new and savage effort of totalitarian aggression—an effort possibly taking the form of German support for Italy in her invasion of Egypt, or elsewhere in the Mediterranean zone. Although there are formidable obstacles to action by the enemy on these lines—not least of them the British Navy—the situation holds other factors which may to a serious extent play into the hands of the aggressors. The worst feature of all is the existence of a government calling itself French which appears to be intent on doing everything that it can to assist the deadly enemies of France, more particularly in the African territories of the French Empire.

Careless optimism may be as little warranted as undue fears where the outlook in the Mediterranean is concerned. The Larger fact to be kept in mind in considering what new schemes Hitler and Mussolini may have concocted in their meeting at the Brenner Pass is, however, that these dictators manifestly are under a dire necessity of devising some means, if they can, of reversing the present course of the war. It is very necessary that full preparation should be made to cope with any new attack they may launch, but legitimate encouragement is to be drawn from the failure of attacks they have already attempted—particularly the attack on Britain. One suggestion current at present is that an extension of Japanese aggression in the Far East'may be intended to coincide with an Axis offensive “in other directions including Egypt.” This supposition may or may not be well founded, but it is reasonably certain that the Italian invasion of Egypt was intended to coincide with a German invasion of Britain. That vital failure and collapse of the Axis plans may in itself go far to account for the meeting of the dictators at the Brenner Pass.