OUR MISTAKES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 August 1941, Page 4

OUR MISTAKES

AND HITLER’S BLUNDERS FIELD-MARSHAL SMUTS'S OBSERVATIONS. WAR AND POST-WAR OUTLOOK. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) PRETORIA, August 3. The South African Prime Minister, Field-Marshal Smuts, in an interview, said: “AVe have made our mistakes, but they were small. All the big blunders were made by Hitler. The first blunder was continuing- to go for Paris instead of for Britain after Dunkirk'. The plan had always been Paris and the German is never good at. changing his plans.. “The second blunder—a great military blunder—is Hitler's attack on Russia. He undoubtedly expected a quick decision to capture most of Russia's resources, and then turn to the West again. Already the wastage of men and material is vast.” Field-Marshal Smuts believes that I Germany’s attempt to involve Japan V further in the war is likely to prove * Hitler's third major blunder. He said the end of the last war came because Germany collapsed internally and her morale broke. Concerning this, the Hess affair was a light in the darkness, and possibly internal collapse of Germany would make it unnecessary to invade the Reich with a large army. Field-Marshal Smuts disapproves of the suggestion that Dominion statesmen should join the War Cabinet in London. “The British Commonwealth is the first world State in which dispersals and decentralisation are fundamentals,” he said. “Suppose a crisis developed in the Middle East. Am I not better in Africa? Mr Churchill can consult me almost as easily as if I were in a London hotel.” On the other hand, he thinks that sending ■ Captain Oliver Lyttelton to the Middle East and Mr Duff Cooper to the Far East was quite good. Field-Marshal Smuts's post-war recipe is for an association of free peoples embracing the British Commonwealth, North America, possibly South America, and certainly the democracies of Europe. The main reason for the failure of the League of Nations, he said, was America’s withdrawal. America had now learnt her lesson.

“When the war began South Africa was divided in soul as regards fighting,” he said. “That has passed. Hitler has proved my case for me. We today have a strong political opposition and a small subversive element underground. I can handle both.”