Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 1941. RUSSIA AS AN ALLY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 July 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 1941. RUSSIA AS AN ALLY.

support has been given at any time by responsible people in Britain (unless Mr George Bernard Shaw is to lie included in that category) to the idea, that Nazi Germany is doomed to meet final and overwhelming disaster in her attack on Soviet Russia, with the democratic allies relieved of any other necessity 7 than that of looking on cheerfully. On the contrary, it has been urged with all possible emphasis by Mr Churchill and others that the appearance of Russia as an ally of the democracies means that Britain and all who were already fighting by her side must regard themselves still as engaged in a struggle demanding the lasi ounce of effort of which they are capable. That being said, however, it is now clear that Russia is giving a far more formidable account of hersell as a belligerent than many reasonably ■well-informed people thought to be within the bounds of possibility when’she was attacked by Germany a month ago. A. particularly pessimistic estimate of .Russian, [lowers and prospects seems to have been current in the United States. Early this month, for example, the Washington correspondent of an Australian paper wrote: — Washington expects a German victory over Russia at any moment, and that probably as early as August Germany will be in a position to begin organising Russian resources. After emphasising the extent to which the effectiveness of the British blockade Of the Axis would then be undermined, the correspondent went on to observe that experts on Russian affairs in the State Department did not rule out the possibility that after the capture of Moscow by the Germans. Al. Stalin might secretly sue for peace with Germany, or enter into some understanding under which Russia could voluntarily throw open to the Germans oil, grain, and other resources, plus the co-operation of Russian technicians in the control of these enterprises. It is no secret (the correspondent added.) that the Russian Government, despite its gesture of co-operation with the British advisory groups, declined to accept the British advice, which, it is said, involved the destruction of Russian resources and territories west of a line from Moscow to the Black Sea, and a withdrawal to the Urals, where the Soviet would be in the best position to meet the German military machine, operating under the difficulties of extended co mmunication lines. It is now self-evident that this estimate, both ol the resolution and constancy of the Russian Government and people, and of at all events the immediate striking power of the German military machine was unsound. Even the most optimistic of the Nazi gangsters must by this time be resigned to the fact that Germany is faced in Russia by a colossal military task. In a month of perhaps the most terrible land fighting ever known,, the Nazi armies have suffered, such a blood bath as they had never before endured and have little more to show for their efforts and sacrifices than extensive areas of scorched earth. They are still short of every one of their main, initial objectives and the Russian resistance, which from the outset has been valiant and indomitable, evidently is far more powerful; now than it was in the opening days of the war. when the Nazis reaped the advantages of treachery and surprise. The possibility is by no means to be dismissed that the Germans, at a price and in the remaining period of good weather,-may add considerably to their area of occupation in Russia. Leningrad and the Ukraine, with much territory between, not excluding Moscow, are definitely menaced. But the prospect of any such early and decisive Nazi triumph in Russia as was envisaged in the Washington message ([noted above is fading rapidly, if it has not already disappeared completely. Russia, in any case is fighting magnificently and where her armies are compelled to retreat they are leaving to the enemy little more than scorched and devastated territory. At the same time, with the conflict raging in full fury and the demands it is making and may yet make defined plainly, her Government has entered into an explicit mutual agreement with Britain not to conclude any separate peace with Nazi Germany. While the possibility of further and possibly deep penetrations by the German armies is not to be ignored, account has to be taken also of the losses these armies are incurring—losses described by a correspondent, of “The Times” on the German frontier as appalling-—-and of the dangers of terrible disaster their advance may ultimately involve. According to a recent cablegram, 4,000,000 of the best-equipped and best-mechanised Russian troops have not yet been engaged and are being held strategically behind the lines in preparation for counter-offen-sives. Tf this estimate is anywhere near the truth, the total prospect confronting the Germans in Russia certainly is anything but promising.