AXIS EFFORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 February 1942, Page 3

AXIS EFFORT

LIKELY TO REACH PEAK IN SPRING M. LITVINOV’S SURVEY. USE OF ALL ALLIED FORCES URGED. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) NEW YORK. February 26. M. Litvinov, the Soviet Ambassador, Sir John Dill, British member of the Anglo-American Chiefs of Staff Group, and Mr Leon Henderson, war economist, today addressed the Overseas Press Club. M. Litvinov said that the United Nations cpuld knock Hitler out this summer by simultaneous offensive actions on two fronts. A spring offensive against Russia, he said, would be the Axis’s decisive “make or break effort,” and the Allies should act accordingly. M. Litvinov explained that this did not mean that the Allies should concentrate their forces for the Russian front, but Russia desire legitimately that the forces which were not used at present should not be kept in idleness and inaction. “The anti-Hitler struggle will reach a peak in the spring, and then all the Allied forces should be put into action,” he said. “There must not be idle armies and immobile navies and air forces, because this spring will decide the fate of the Axis. “I think there will not be more fronts outside Europe along which decisive battles and offensive actions are possible—at least not for a long time, till the United States’s considerable forces can be matured.” General Dill praised the Russians,' who, he said, were rising supreme over their trials and anguish, and he pleaded for mutual confidence. He emphasised the upsurge of the British spirit which had maintained the growth of the Commonwealth throughout the centuries. “Britain, Canada. New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and India are fighting by land, sea and air in defence of their common heritage,” he said. “India alone has contributed more than 1,000,000 fighting volunteers.” The United Nations were fighting for liberty against slavery, for the right to speak and worship. There would be an endless age of darkness and tyranny if the Allies failed, and they therefore would not accept any alternative but full victory. Mr Henderson said, “None of our Allies, nor any Axis Power, has ever diverted such a percentage of the total production to war as the United States is planning to divert in the next two years.” He added that war production in America would cost 50,000 million dollars in 1942, and 75,000 million in 1943. which meant that the living standard would soon fall below the lowest point in the great depression.