Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1940. THE ROAD TO VICTORY AND PEACE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 December 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1940. THE ROAD TO VICTORY AND PEACE.

« WITH one year ending and another about to open, the countries VV of the British Empire are faced still by a grim ordeal o war—an ordeal which has yet to be measured. It is not less true, however, that the British people m all their lands are passing from one year to another keyed up to a high pitch o resolution and of confident hope. Much of what has been most momentous in the events of the past twelve months was epitomised by the King in the course of his Christmas broadcast Of the New Year, his Majesty said: Me may look foinaid to it with sober confidence.” He said also: “Ye have surmounted a grave crisis.”

The nature of that crisis it is hardly necessary now to recall While they live, those who experienced it wdl never foro-et the terrible shock of the collapse of France, followingon the overrunning by the Nazi hordes of a number ol smallei nations. Deprived thus suddenly of the comradeship and support of a nation which had been regarded universally as a strong and dependable ally, Britain and the whole British Empire were placed for the time in mortal peril. The outcome, however, has been an inspiring and ' magnificent demonstration 01. tie finality of the British people—a demonstration in which the civilian population of the United Kingdom, under a continuing ordeal of murderous bombing, has emulated the valour and constancy 7 of the fighting forces of the Empire on land and sea. and in the air.

It is now to be acknowledged freely that elements of false confidence, or at all events of an inadequate appreciation o the magnitude of the task in hand, entered' into onr national war outlook of a. year ago. But it has to be added that, with a much more accurate perception now of what the war against Nazism really entails, we are able, as the King has said, to “take courage and comfort from the successes which onr fightino- men and their allies have won, at. heavy odds, by land and air‘and sea.” The confidence that is felt today does not rest, upon any expectation of quick or easy victory. It rests rather on the fact that our nation and its allies have not only survived the period of maximum peril—that in which the enemy possessed, in some vital branches ol: armament, a. relative superiority which he can never hope to enjoy again—but has struck tremendous and telling blows and has good prospects 01. being able to strike with increasing force and effect as time goes on.

Against the disasters culminating in the collapse of France which were suffered during the past year, and against Ihe dangers and problems yet to be faced —not least U-boat and other attacks on merchant, shipping and the night bombing ol cities—Britain and her allies are in a position to set great achievements. Amongst these are the decisive defeat of ail attempts thus far made by Germany to invade Britain, destructive attacks by the Royal Air Force throughout enemy ami occupied territory, the elimination by sea and air attack ol a. o'reat part of the enemy’s naval strength, and the shattering defeats inflicted on the Italians by the Greeks and by our own forces and allied contingents in Egypt and Libya. Forming a background to these positive developments, and in a definite sense making them possible, is the unbroken maintenance ol the naval blockade, of the enemy and occupied countries. An honourable place in the list of achievements must be accorded, too to the spirit in which the civilian population ol Britain is enduring the terrible ordeal of enemy bombing—an ordeal hat has butYtiffienecl British determination io make an end of Nazism at all costs.

That determination is universal throughout the. Empire and in the allied forces, most of them exiled meant one from their homelands, which are playing an elective and increasing part in the struggle, to re-establish liberty and justice. It is supremely important that this determination is la o tee men, banded together in voluntary and spontaneous suppoi of the cause of democracy. There is, ol course, no sue i nng as perfect, unity in a great nation in which the de\e opmen • and expression of opinion are unconstrained. bor examp e four members of the British House of Commons were lonnt recently to vote for a policy which would have played directly' into the hands of Hitler and his gang. Such incidents sene only to emphasise the united determination ol all but an insignificant proportion of the British people that there shall be no weakening or compromise in the war that is being fought to make an end of the foulness of Nazism.

Alaferial factors like those of aircraft and other armament production, in Britain and in the United States, the construction of shipping, and the maintenance of supplies of all kinds, must, influence heavily the course of the war, Ind the ultimately decisive factor is that of the spirit of the peoples who stand opposed in this fateful conflict. It will count in the end for more than anything else that in its unrelenting prosecution of the war, the Government headed by .Air Winston Churehill is giving effect, to the resolution of a genuinely uniled peoph>. Sooner or later, on the oilier hand, Germany’s power to continue the war will come to depend on the ability of the Gestapo to maintain and enforce the slavery ’Hitler lias imposed on Hie people of the Reich as well as upon those of occupied countries.