POPULAR FALLACIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 December 1941, Page 6

POPULAR FALLACIES

EFFECTS OF RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN.

We are ridden with popular fallacies about this war,, asserts the “Manchester Guardian.” One is that in a few days the Russian winter will descend and the Germans will obligingly lie down to freeze after the Grand Army’s illustrious example. Nothing could be more stupid than this delusion, for if the Russians could fight against the Finns in a far northern January the Germans will certainly be able to fight against the Russians during an Ukrainian winter. Another unhappy notion held by many here is that, at a pinch, Russia could lose Moscow, Leningrad, and the Ukraine and carry on a. fullblown resistance from her industrial centres in the Urals. It. is true that Russia could carry on even if she lost her great towns, and no one overlooks her indomitable spirit. But it is as well to remember that Leningrad, Moscow and Kharkov are great engineering towns and are virtually the only places in the Soviet Union where the finer machine tools can be made. They are also important for the Russian aircraft industry. Without them Russia would depend fairly completely on Britain and the United States for many weapons, which would have to get to her by Vladivostok or the Near East, because the loss of Leningrad would mean the isolation of Murmansk as a port of entry. Russia has done the Allied cause the greatest possible service. Gratitude and self-in-terest oblige us to aid her. We shall set about it best by first looking coolly at the war, not deceiving ourselves with idle hopes, and in this way we may come to an understanding of Russia’s likely needs.