GERMAN COLLAPSE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 April 1941, Page 7

GERMAN COLLAPSE

PROBABLY IN SPRING, 1942 DR. BENES CONFIDENT. FAITH IN DEMOCRACY. “The German collapse will come probably in the spring of 1942,” said Dr. Edward Benes, President of the Provisional Czechoslovak Government, recently in answer to T. A. Raman, the noted Indian journalist. “Allied war effort will rise in its crescendo next summer and American support will begin to tell decisively. “A combination of blockade and heavier air offensives through 1941 will steadily exhaust German resources and sap the morale which has been keyed up to such a pitch for so long,” Dr. Benes went on. “France and the other occupied countries will increasingly resist., The rot will definitely set in, and by the spring of 1942 we may expect a collapse.” Re-affirming his faith in democracy, Dr. Benes said: “More than ever before I am convinced of the necessity of Democracy for all progress, and certain of its final victory. This war . more than others has proved that democracy is the key to all the precious values of life. It was for this reason, too, that the assault of Nazism was directed first against the democratic idea because it would be only across the body of democracy that Hitler could pass to secure his ultimate objects. “It is indeed true that democracy has not yet reached its fullest stature. The economic crises of recent years revealed that its capacity to resolve economic problems was inadequate. The political crisis which culminated in the war demonstrated how difficult it is to resolve the problems of authority and leadership in democracies. “Hitler’s propaganda was able to exploit these shortcomings. It is beyond doubt that after the war, these deficiencies must be corrected. But, on the whole, I believe that Masaryk that the best cure for the ills of democracy is ’more democracy and truer democracy.’

FUTURE OF EUROPE, Dr. Benes, remarking that Hitler’s New Order was merely a stunt to conceal his world conquest idea said: “An organised Europe can be based only on the democratic equality of lands and peoples and which is equally important —the democratic equality of people within each national whole. "For these reasons, I say that the purely military defeat of Hitler and Mussolini will not suffice for complete victory in this war. In Germany and Italy must be created the conditions which -would effectively prevent that rulership by personalities, parties or castes on which the power of dictators is built. And the German and Italian people must be made to realise that they have'been defeated by moral as well as military superiority.” Speaking about the position in Czechoslokavia to day, and her contribution to the common cause, Dr. Benes said that he had not the slightest doubt that the Czechoslovak people would hold out to the end in their resistance to German oppression despite all the tortures they suffer. FAITH CONFIRMED. “Our reports from home,” he said, “confirm our faith. ' I am more than satisfied with the moral endurance of our people in their terrible ordeals. I am proud of them, and ask nothing more than that we, their spokesmen abroad, should prove ourselves worthy of their heroism.

“Czechoslovak resistance at home is one vital contribution which Czechoslovakia makes to the struggle. It is worth no less than four million Germans, soldiers, policemen and officials who would otherwise have taken part in the war on other fronts. “Passive resistance is going on all the time against German war industry and against work of every character which helps Germany’s military ends. Frequent executions for acts of passive resistance prove how acutely the Germans feel our indirect, aid to the Allies. As to direct support, we have a small but good army which, after the collapse of France, transferred its activity to Great Britain and the Middle East.

“Our airmen have taken part very successfully in the war first in France and since in Great Britain. The status of our army was determined by the recent agreement between Britain and the Czechoslovakian Provisional Government which guarantees independence to our army within the framework of the Allied organisation.”