APPROVING COMMENT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 July 1941, Page 5

APPROVING COMMENT

ON STALIN’S BROADCAST ABLE TO TELL PEOPLE TRUTH. CALL FOR TOTAL NATIONAL VZAR. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, July 4. The diplomatic correspondent of “The Times” says: “M. Stalin’s broadcast has favourably impressed London, where his admission of setbacks and loss of territory is regarded as a sign of strength. M. Stalin seems to be better able to tell the people the truth than Dr. Goebbels.” The “Daily Telegraph's” correspondent in Moscow says that M. Stalin’s call for a,total national war, not only in the modern sense but also in the grim “old Russian” way, has electrified the Soviet masses. Another report says that after the frank fighting speech tens of thousands enlisted in the new national militia. Explaining how M. Stalin could broadcast to the masses when all private radio sets have- been called in, correspondents say there are public loudspeakers in all villages, collective farms, offices, factories, and shops and also in every courtyard of the town tenements. M. Stalin chose 6.30 a.m. for the broadcast in order to catch everybody before he began the day’s work. Commenting on the speech, the “Evening Standard” yesterday said: “Soviet Russia fights! Today this mighty fact, which has transformed the whole aspect of the war, is clinched by M. Stalin’s pronouncement. He shirks none of the hard military considerations, but he rallies his nation to endure till victory. “This, we believe, is a proclamation of the readiness of Soviet Russia and her huge armies to fight before Smolensk and behind Smolensk, before Moscow and, if need be, from the Urals. “That the Soviet should fight this long and enduring battle and interrupt Hitler’s plan for quick victory in the east is the highest concern of the British Commonwealth and the United States. M. Stalin calls as much to us as to his own people. If the military power of the Soviet Union were to be broken or destroyed Hitler would possess a command of the world’s resources beyond the dreams of any previous man.” The “Evening News” said the broadcast was the voice of a man reporting clearly and with moderation how Russia stands in the second week of her battle for life, and that it was neither pessimistic nor dismayed. “Russian resistance,” it says, “grows and strengthens.”