UNITED NATIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 September 1942, Page 4

UNITED NATIONS

TWENTV-NINE PEOPLES VAST WAR POTENTIAL. SECRET FORCES OF LIBERTY IN FRANCE. Twenty-nine peoples are at war with the Axis Powers. They are:-— Britain, India, Canada, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. Russia, Fighting France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Luxemburg, Poland, Yugoslavia, Czecho-Slovakia, and Greece. The United States of America, Mexico, Cuba, Costa Rica, Haiti, Plonduras, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Guatemala, Salvador, and Brazil. China. The Axis Powers are: —Germany, Italy, Rumania, .Bulgaria, Hungary, Finland, and Japan, although a state of peace still remains between Japan and Russia. From headquarters in Britain, as well as in national centres in the United States, Governments of the over-run European countries have organised the military power of their nationals who escaped the enslaving occupation of Germany. Some of them, notably the Fighting French headed by General de Gaulle, the Poles, the Dutch, the Belgians and the Norwegians, have formed active service units of one kind or another on English soil, and through them the freedomloving spirit of their peoples lives, but only in part, for in every occupied country patriots strike where they can. Recent events have shown how strong and well organised are the secret forces of liberty in France. GUERILLA PATRIOTS. Yugoslavia has in its mountains an army of Serbian guerillas, and in Greece the resistance is so widespread that many Axis divisions are necessary to control the country. In Czecho-’ Slovakia, it is reported, the output of the Skoda munition works has been reduced by 40 per cent through the activities of the patriots. In Norway, Holland, Belgium and Poland the resistance is affecting the efficiency of industry and transport. Ruthless methods of repression cannot stop the sabotage or speed up production. In every one of the 15 occupied countries the will to resist the invader is unquenchable, notwithstanding the iron heel of the conquerors and the efforts of Quisling traitors. CHRONOLOGY OF WAR. It is interesting to scan the chronology of the war in so far as it applies to the rupture of international relations. It was not until June 11, in the eleventh month of the ‘war, that Italy declared war on Britain and defeated France. The following month the Vichy Government broke off diplomatic rela- ( tions with Britain. On September 27, 1940, Germany, Italy and Japan mutually “recognised the new order.” The following month Italy invaded Greece. In February, 1941, diplomatic relations between Britain and Rumania were broken off, and in the following month Bulgaria joined the Axis. April of that year saw the German invasion of Greece and Yugoslavia and the attack by Hungary upon Yugoslavia. Significant in the light of subsequent events was the signing of peace in Tokio by Thailand and French IndoChina. Denmark is not one of the United Nations, but in May, 1941, Iceland, already occupied.by British troops, severed her union with Denmark. THE WIDENING-CONFLICT. In June, 1941;, Germany invaded Russia, and at the same time Italy and Rumania declared war on Russia, and the Vichy Government broke off diplomatic relations with Russia. , Satisfactory replies to communications not having been received from Finland, Hungary and Rumania. Britain, in December, 1941, declared that a state of war existed with them. Following the treacherous blow at Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941, Japan declared war on the United States and Britain. Up to that time China was not a member of the United Nations and her war with Japan had been called by the. Japanese “the Chinese incident.” On December 9, however, China declared war on Germany and Italy and thus formally aligned herself with the United Nations. Two days later Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. From December 13 Britain was formally at war with Bulgaria, and before the year was out the Netherlands had] declared war on Italy. In January of this year Japan be-1 came officially at war with the Nether-I lands East Indies.