NAZI TACTICS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 March 1941, Page 5

NAZI TACTICS

EXPECTATION OF WAITING GAME SURVEY OF POSSIBILITIES. YUGOSLAVIA’S MAGNIFICENT RALLY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, March 29. The expectation that, in the face of the serious set-back to her intrigues in the Balkans, Germany will—at least to begin with —play a waiting game is common to most of today's Press comment. “The Times” makes three points regarding the manifestation of national feeling that brought the new Yugoslav Government into power. The first is that the signature appended to the Tripartite Pact may be repudiated but that the present Government will not permit it to be used as an instrument to assist German aggression against an old friend and ally of three victorious wars. Secondly, this is not a military revolution. It is the result of universal popular sentiment. Thirdly, German plans have been thrown out of gear. Examining this third point. “The Times” says that before pursuing a direct attack upon Greece through Bulgaria, Germany will now have to “decide whether the Yugoslav Government of today, would stand by and watch the development of an operation leading toward Salonika, where it has a free zone—its only present outlet to the world not dominated by Nazis and Fascists. She would have to make up her mind about what would be the possible fate of the Italian forces in Albania, which are likewise isolated.” As to a large-scale invasion of Yugoslavia, vulnerable as that country is north of the Sava, that would mean embarking on a campaign of the first magnitude whose developments no man could foresee.

This paper and others insist, too, on the importance to Germany of .. not interrupting supplies from south-east-ern Europe, either by hostilities themselves or by the extra strain they would impose on the already overburdened transport. At the same time inaction in the face of this reverse would involve a serious loss to Nazi prestige and Hitler accordingly is presented with embarrassing problems. “The Times” thinks Thursday’s events in Belgrade “may come to be looked upon in the future as the turning point of the war.” It is interesting to note that this estimate of the importance of the Yugoslav revival under King Peter finds similar expression in the Press in several centres, including Madrid and New York. The invigorating effect of Yugoslavia’s spirited repudiation of the Government which signed the Tripartite Pact is reflected in the Press of

liberty-loving countries throughout the world, and the news has been greeted as enthusiastically in the United States as in Britain and throughout the Empire. Referring to Berlin’s untimely taunt that the ceremony in Vienna on Tuesday was “a British diplomatic Dunkirk,” “The Times” remarks “This provokes the retort that Yugoslavia has shown the same magnificent capacity as Bi'itain for rallying, strengthened and undaunted, from apparently overwhelming disaster. The truth is that Herr von Ribbentrop on this occasion badly overplayed his hand. The attempt to bait a trap for Mr. Matsuoka with a fresh accession to the Axis ended in an ignominious fiasco.”