Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1941. COOPERATION WITH RUSSIA.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 September 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1941. COOPERATION WITH RUSSIA.

from the keen sympathy that is felt with Russia in her heroic and' resolute resistance to invasion, strategical and tactical considerations, as the New Zealand Prime Minister has said, make it essential that Russia should be helped as an important part of the tight against Nazism. The announcement that a complete Royal Air Force wing has reached Russia is an impressive addition to other news supporting Mr Fraser’s further observation that, every conceivable practical effort is being made by the British War Cabinet to help the Russian armies and people. With war events at a critical stage in Southern Russia, as well as in the Leningrad area and on other parts of the Eastern front, it is evidently necessary that cooperation with and assistance to Russia should be extended to the utmost. On a number of grounds, amongst them the fact that the British Middle Eastern .armies and the Russians are now in contact in Iran, it seems very probable that it is in South Russia and adjacent areas that, the greatest opportunity lor combined and concerted action by Russian and British Empire forces may appear. Well-informed Turkish circles, a. cablegram states, are convinced that Germany will stake everything on an early thrust against Southern Russia and the Caucasus. With lhe addition that the trust thus predicted may well be directed in part against Turkey herself, this seems very probable indeed. It is, of course, obvious, that the enemy offensive in Southern Russia, developed meantime to the point of gaining some bridgeheads east of the Dnieper, definitely menaces the whole Middle East as well as the Caucasus and other Russian territories. With the outlook as yet undetermined in some vital details, though evidently capable of very rapid development, the belief reported to be held in London that Russia may soon declare war on Bulgaria is of considerable' interest. That Russia would be well justified in taking that step hardly needs to be stated. Under her pro-German Government, and, it is claimed, against the wishes of a great majority of her peasant population, Bulgaria has become simply a German outpost. As an individual and ostensibly neutral nation, Bulgaria has ceased to count, but it counts hqavily that her territory is being used by the Nazis as a military base within convenient striking distance of the Turkish Straits, and that at lhe same time Germany is assembling naval forces and transports in Bulgarian ports, with the apparent, intention of attacking the Crimea and other Soviet, territories on the Black Sea. With her Black Sea fleet, Russia may be able to take effective action against these concentrations. Germany has advantages, however, in the' possession of aerodromes in Bulgaria, from which powerful attacks could be developed at short notice and no doubt she will do her utmost to coerce Turkey into permitting the entry of Italian naval forces into the Black Sea. The only way in which Turkey can continue to resist Axis pressure in this particular and others no doubt is that of making common cause with Russia and Britain. Critical as the immediate position undoubtedly is on several parts of the Eastern front, and not least in the south, it is certainly not to be assumed that Germany will be able to achieve anywhere an easy extension of her invasion. Against, the gains, largely of devastated territory, she has made, there are to be set enormous losses. Some published accounts of these losses may have been exaggerated, but a report presented recently to the Turkish President by the British Ambassador in Ankara, Sir Hugh Knatehbull-llugessen, gave facts and figures which no doubt are accurate. The report stated, amongst, other things, that Germany had about 5,000,000 men on the Russian front out. of a total army of 7,000,000. It wa,s estimated that 7,500 tanks, or roughly 90 per cent of Germany’s armoured strength, were also engaged. Germany’s minimum casualties, in ten weeks of warfare with Russia, had’been 1,000,000 men. There had been in addition a loss of German material “unprecedented in warfare.” Heavy addition to these losses have been made in the last three weeks. Much as they may be expected to impel the Nazi dictatorship to a, desperate bid for early victory, the facts are not Without their hopeful and encouraging aspect from the Allied standpoint.