Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 1941. PARLIAMENT TO MEET.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 June 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 1941. PARLIAMENT TO MEET.

r pilK announcement of the Acting-Prime Minister, Mr Nash, that Parliament is to meet on Tuesday next no doubt will be welcomed. So, too, will Mr Nash s assnranee that all possible in formal ion regarding the part played by onr forces in the battles in Crete and the evacuation ol that island, with the exception only of information that would be of value to the enemy, will be given to Parliament immediately it reaches New Zealand. At a lime when our armed forces have suffered heavy losses in a heroic, effort, bid one which has had to be abandoned, it is undoubtedly right that Parliament should assemble and hear from the Government an explanation and defence of the policy it has followed. -'Phis democratic procedure is not the less necessary although there is little enough doubt that Parliament and people in this country will approve as null esit a tiiuilv the employment of New Zealand troops in the defence of Crete as they earlier approved the inclusion of the New Zealand Division in the Expeditionary Force that sought to stem the German invasion of mainland Greece.

Bitterly as we mourn and deplore the sacrifice that is demanded of onr youthful manhood, there can be no question of New Zealand forces being withheld from this or that part of the great holding battle the Empire and its allies are now fighting in the .Middle East —a battle with an obviously vital bearing on the security and future of this country and of many others besides. Those particularly who have kinsmen serving overseas will be anxious above all things for early and accurate information as to their fate. The Acting-Premier lias promised that every effort will be made to expedite the transmission of this information and too much cannot be attempted or done in honouring that promise to the full.

For the country as a whole and for Parliament, there are other aspects of the situation which demand attention. Parliament has obvious duties to perform in expressing our gratitude as a community to the members of our valiant fighting forces and to the Royal Navy and Air Force, with whom they are now united in a comradeship that will never be forgotten. Tf it is responsive as it should be to the popular will, however, Parliament will perceive also that its most imperative duty is to do everything that is humanly possible to quicken and advance the organisation of this country for war.

We can best show gratitude to our gallant troops and their comrades by doing without reservation everything that it is in our power to do to support them. The emergency by which we are confronted demands unlimited effort and unlimited sacrifice on the home front, as well as on the battlefront. As that veteran British trade unionist, Mr William Holmes, said in a broadcast address to the people of New Zealand last, evening, it is not more words that are needed lo win this war, but more work in every practicable way. Incidentally it may well be asked whether the conditions of political division, subdued though they are, that exist in this country, are worthy or should be tolerated in a time of unexampled national and interna t i ona 1 emergency.

CRETE AND AFTERWARDS. interesting and encouraging claim has been made by a Royal Air Force spokesman in Cairo that the air supremacy which has enabled the Germans to sweep through Yugoslavia and Greece into Crete cannot continue beyond that island. “If the Germans carry the Luftwaffe to the mainland of Africa or to Asia Minor,” the spokesman added, “the position will be largely reversed.” To an extent, the opinion here expressed rests on apparent and incontestable fact . The Germans were able to operate against Crete from bases no more in some instances than about 70 miles away, while British planes supporting and co-operating with the defenders had to operate from bases nearly 400 miles distant. There is no visible possibility of the enemy enjoying any similar advantage in Asia Minor or Africa, or even in an attack on Cyprus, though as to this last the position may be affected greatly by the course of events in Syria. With the unimpeded occupation and use of aerodromes in Syria that they are offered by the subservience of. the French administration in that territory, the Germans would be handily placed to attack Cyprus by air at comparatively shoi't range. With bases in Palestine, TransJordan and Iraq, however, the R.A.F. is vastly better placed both to attack aerodromes in Syria and to repel air attacks on Cyprus than it was to render similar services to the defenders of Crete. Against whatever air forces the enemy is able to introduce into North Africa, too, the R.A.F. should not be handicapped by the lack of conveniently situated bases. Much must depend, of course, on the conditions in which land warfare is likely to develop in these theatres. It has yet to appear, for instance, whether Britain has the men and material available, together with the necessary assurance of supplies, that would enable her to forestall enemy action in Syria, as clearly she has every right to do in the circumstances that now exist and are developing. The action of traitors to France, who are placing French resources at the disposal of the deadly enemies of France and of all free nations undoubtedly ought to be defeated by vigorous action if that be possible. Information of necessity is incomplete as to the relative strength in land and air forces and in volume of supplies, that Britain and the enemy can bring respectively to bear in Asia Minor and in North Africa. Some reasons appear, however, for hoping and believing that the heroic defenders of Crete have not fought by any means in vain and that at a long view the heavy losses in trained men and material the enemy has suffered in capturing the island will count heavily towards his ultimate and final overthrow. There is much to support the anticipation expressed by the Australian Prime Minister, Mr Menzies, that the principal land fighting of the war for months to come will be witnessed in the Middle East. This implies of necessity a heavy call upon the fighting forces and resources of the Empire, but it implies also that the enemy is being compelled to diverge widely from what, had his choice been free, would have been the main trend of his war effort —an attack on the United Kingdom. So far as his main objective is concerned, the enemy is now reduced to relying on air bombing and on attacks on seaborne commerce by his submarines. surface raiders and aircraft. These attacks are tremendously formidable, but against them is arrayed not only the expanding power of British sea and air forces, but the vast material resources of the United States, only now beginning to be drawn upon in anything like full measure. What is meantime to happen in this or that section of the Mediterranean theatre is more or less an open question. There is no room for easy optimism and there will be none until a clearer path has been opened ahead. So far, however, as operations in regions round the Mediterranean are concerned, if Britain and her allies are faced by serious problems, there are great difficulties also for the enemy to grapple with as best he may—difficulties, notably of extending communications, whether by land, air or sea. In spite of the admittedly serious loss of Crete. British seapower is a mighty factor in the Mediterranean, as it is in every other part of the world. There arc at least fair prospects that British and Imperial forces will not be called upon, in the campaigns that are likely to develop in Asia Minor and in North Africa, to fight under any such terrible handicap as they laboured under in mainland Greece and in Crete.