HOPEFUL VIEW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 August 1941, Page 5

HOPEFUL VIEW

TAKEN BY MR HARRY HOPKINS OF RUSSIAN FIGHTING POWER. ABILITY TO WARD OFF NAZI OFFENSIVE. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON, August 5. In an encouraging report on the impressions he formed in Moscow, Mr Harry Hopkins, President Roosevelt’s emissary, fully confirms the reports from other sources that M. Stalin and the other Soviet officials are highly confident of the Soviet Union’s ability to ward off Germany’s third offensive. The diplomatic correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says the report insists that the Russians have not used their best troops in the early stages of the battle, possibly because they were not fully mobilised, but now numbers of first-class divisions are available to meet the German attacks. Though Soviet military experts to whom Mr Hopkins talked do not exclude a possibility that Kiev might be compelled to yield, they do not regard this as a foregone conclusion. A new German thrust midway between Leningrad and Smolensk is reported in last night’s Moscow communique, which states that there has been intense fighting there. The object of the drive, it is commented in London, is not yet clear, but it is posr sible that the aim is to cut Leningrad’s communications. There is no indication yet of the strength of the German troops engaged. The communique otherwise names the same sectors as yesterday. The well-informed Berlin correspondent of the Basle “National Zeitung” says there are no indications in the German capital that the Russian coun-ter-attacks are weakening. He adds that the only German reply to the Russian announcement that a “great German” division was nearly annihilated is that this division took 5000 prisoners at the beginning of the campaign. SMOLENSK BATTLE. German broadcasters from the Smolensk front emphasise that the Russians in the past 48 hours have been massing a considerable number of new troops eastward of Smolensk. These broadcasts,'which continue to refer to “fanatical” Russian resistance, are phrased as if Smolensk had fallen, but the German authorities reiterate their warning that territorial gains are not in themselves the main object of the warfare. The military spokesmen in Berlin continue to declare that the outcome of the present battle in the Smolensk region will decide the whole RussianGerman war. WINTER CAMPAIGN LIKELY. It is considered possible that the Germans might be involved in a winter campaign in White Russia and the Ukraine, when the advantage would definitely swing to the Russians. The original German plan of campaign against the massive Russian armies remains to encircle and then destroy them. This policy, according to today’s Swiss dispatches from Berlin, is failing along the whole front. The “Neue Zuercher Zeitung’s” correspondent declares that a large-scale Russian withdrawal on the southern front is being effected so successfully that the German plans for their encirclement have been nullified. The correspondent of another Zurich newspaper, on the other hand, reports that the Germans frequently encircle Russian forces, but these always break through the enclosing ring. In spite of the German claims re- ’ garding Russian losses, the correspondent adds, the Luftwaffe has been very active in the past few days attempting to halt a seemingly endless stream of Russian reinforcements. The divebombers are also combing vast forestlands from which Russian forces sally out against the German rear to start bloody battles that delay the enemy.

BLOCKADE OF FINLAND IN FORCE SINCE JUNE 14. (Received This Day, 9.30 a.m.) LONDON, August 5. It is authoritatively announced that Finland has been blockaded since June 14. When Britain learned early last June of a substantial number of German troops being stationed in. //inland instructions were issued, on June 14, that until further notice no more ship navicerts should be granted to vessels bound for Finland. At the same time it was arranged with the Admiralty that the Finnish ships which had already sailed and had been intercepted should be taken to British ports and I should be refused clearances. The position continued to deteriorate tnd on June 20 all navicert applications and all export licences were refused and every possible step towards a blockade was taken, against Finland, without awaiting the niceties of the breaking off of diplomatic relations.