MR ATTLEE’S extended survey

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 August 1941, Page 6

MR ATTLEE’S extended survey

F — ’ Failures of the Nazis in Russia OPERATIONS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND AT SEA VASTLY INCREASED AMERICAN HELP (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.35 a.m.) RUGBY, August 6. The Lord Privy Seal, Mr C. R. Attlee, opened the debate on the Consolidated Fund Bill with a statement cn the war. He stated that the Democracies were still fighting for their existence against a strong and ruthless enemy. On the Russian front, he said, it was clear that the plans of the Nazi High Command, for a rapid advance, had not succeeded and he recalled that it was as long ago as July 13 that they claimed that “the Stalin Line had been pierced at all points and the roads to Moscow and Kiev were open.’’ In the Far North, Murmansk was still in Russian hands. On the other Baltic shore there had been no progress. Recently fierce fighting had taken place in the Smolensk area, but the road to Moscow was far from being open. Kiev remained a bastion in the Russian defences and the Soviet Air Force had continued to play its great part. “I am sure,’’ Mr Attlee declared, “that everybody in this country has been stirred by this splendid resistance to invasion.’’ Britain, he added, was taking to furnish Russia with the supplies for which she had asked and no time had been lost in making contact by the fleet at Kirkenes and other northern places, where physical contact with the Russians was possible.