Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1941. WAR DEMANDS INTENSIFIED.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 April 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, APRIL 12, 1941. WAR DEMANDS INTENSIFIED.

VVTTH a demand lor unremitting cltort, in the war anu a warning that hard lighting- must be expected for the defence of Egypt: and elsewhere. Air Churchill’s survey of the war in the House of Commons mi Wednesday embodied also a note of firm confidence which will he encouraging, not only to the people of the British Empire and those who are lighting in their company. but to many millions in countries meantime ejisla\e<l whose hopes for the future depend on British and allied victory. Mr Churchill is as little inclined as he was in the dark davs of Mav and dune. 1940, to soften difficulties or deny dangers, but he speaks now, with full authority and support, as the leader of a nation determined to win Hie war and rid the world of Nazism, whatever the time needed to compass that achievement.

The British Prime Minister admitted frankly that Hie only way to get through 194'2 without a serious contraction, ol the national and Imperial war effort was by another gigantic shipbuilding .programme' in the United States similar to the prodigious output in 1918. He was able to add. however, that.

Britain was assured of several million tons of new American shipping during the next year and he was confident that we should succeed in coping with the attacks on our shipping.

From a statesman as scrupulously and consistently earelul as Mr Churchill to avoid raising unwarranted hopes, this assurance means much. An ability to maintain and .use an effective command of the seas is. as il long has been, Britain s best guaianiec of ultimate victory.

With the well-founded hope raised that enemy attacks on our seaborne commerce will ultimately lie repelled decisively, the British nation in all its lands has every incentive to prosecute the war with the greatest possible vigour, irrespective 01. what detail setbacks may be suffered meantime in this or that theatre. Our fundamental hope is in mastery of the seas, and today that hope is enlarged magnificently by the material that is being given by the other great, branch of the English-speaking race. Nothing would be gained, however, by minimising the seriousness of the immediate outlook in some areas of war. notably Libya and Ihe Balkans. The latest available news of events in Cyrenaica gives full point to Mr Churchill s warning of the hard' and severe fighting that must be expected in that region, but il is to be remembered here, as be pointed out. that the Italian eoHa.pse in East ..Africa is liberating very substantial forces to reinforce the Army of the Nile, and these are now reported to be arriving daily in increasing numbers.

New Zealand has its full concern in the immensely critical turn that events have taken suddenly in another theatre ol' war —the Balkan Peninsula, where British forces are now in contact with the Germans. On the information available at the moment if is impossible to form any very.clear opinion of the position reached in Greece or of the. prospects opened there, but it was presumably with the fullest possible knowledge, and on due reflection, that Mr Churchill said:—

If the Greeks were resolved to face the might and fury of the Huns, the soldiers of the British Empire would stand in line with them. General Wavell and General Papagos declared that a sound military plan could be made, though naturally there were hazards.

With our own Expeditionary Force included in the Empire Army thus pledged to stand in line with the Greeks, the thoughts of all New Zealanders will be concentrated on Ihe tempest ol; war now raging in the Balkans. It.may be assumed reasonably that, in speaking as he did of the .possibility of stemming the Nazi offensive, Air Churchill made allowance for all that A ug'oslavia lias lost under the spineless policy of the “weak and unfortunate” Prince Paul and the Government against whom the people rebelled too kite. It certainly may be. taken for granted that nothing of which valour and resolution are capable will be left undone to prevent the rest of Greece falling underNazi domination.

Whalever the course events are destined to take in Ihe immediate future in Hie Near and Middle East, it is (dear that our own soldiers, in company with those Iroui other parts 01. the Empire and the Greeks, have entered upon a grim contest and ordeal. These developments have their vital bearing on the total war outlook, and the duly tiiey impose on. New Zealand is manifest, it would be shameful if we allowed anything whatever to slaml in the way of the most powerful combined, effort of which, as a people, w<* are capable, mil only in giving all possible direct support to the members of our lighting forces, upon who lll great a trust, devolves, bid. in every detail 01. our participation in tin 1 war. If we are to bi 1 worthy ol Hie sacrifices that are being and will be made lor us, we must blot out partisanship and subordinate all lesser eonsideralions to a loyal concentration of imm'gy and resources upon Ihe .supreme object, of winning the war, so that justice and liberty may he re-established in Hie world. None can now be unaware that we are involved in a conflict in which everything that makes Ide worth living is at stake, in the order of Iho day he addressed to the forces under his command on their departure Irom I'.gypt for Greece. Ala.jor-Gein'i'td Freyberg said: “I have never seen troops that impressed me more. II is lor Hie homeland el these troops to prove worthy of Iho men il has sent forlh to battle.