MANY INQUIRIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 September 1942, Page 3

MANY INQUIRIES

ABOUT SECOND FRONT / HEARD BY MR WILLKIE IM RUSSIA. NO SIGNS OF WEAKENING. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) MOSCOW, September 20. “A second front has become almost a kind of symbol for the Russians of the kind of aid they are entitled to receive from Britain and America,” said Mr Wendell Willkie on his arrival m Moscow from Kuibyshev. “The Rnssians apprecitae the supply of materials, but they think that it is inadequate ; they think they are carrying the brunt of the war, which is as much Britain’s and America’s as their own. I have been asked about a second front 50 times a day. I consider Stalingrad as much a British and American front as Russian, because the war is a global one, and all fronts belong to all the Allies. No nation can afford to become individually self-protective.” Mr Willkie said that his dominant impressions thus far were the high morale of the Russians, who were showing no signs of weakening anywhere in their determination to carry on to victory, and a grim realisation of the military realities. The Russians had no “phoney notions” about the strength of the German Army. Absolutely no limitations had been placed on his inspections or inquiries in Russia, Mr Willkie said. . WAR MAV BE LONG IF NOT WON THIS YEAR. REPORTED RUSSIAN BELIEF. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.) MELBOURNE, September 20. The belief in Russia was that if the war was not won this year it . might last 10 years, said M. Vladimir Mikheyev, the Russian journalist who is in Melbourne as a correspondent of the Tass news

agency. , M. Mikheyev said that no other country could realise the extent of the Russian sacrifices and suffering, which would be increased a hundredfold every year the war was prolonged. That was why M. Stalin and other Russian leaders always spoke of victory this year. It was beileved in Russia that this could be accomplished if the maximum pressure was put on Germany in France, Belgium, Norway, Holland, Libya and perhaps in Greece, Italy, and even in Germany itself “Russia understands the difficulties and dangers associated with attacking Germany in Europe,” he said, “but compared with the dangers of her own situation she feels that the risks for Britain and the United Nations are ever so much lighter.” Whatever happened, Russia is going on fighting, he said. Her problem was not manpower, but equipment with which to fight. The greatest relief, however, could only come by forcing Germany to divide her forces to fight in the west as well as in Russia. The loss of Stalingrad would be the greatest blow that could befall Russia. The cutting of the Volga communications virtually would mean cutting Russia in half. “England will have to launch a second front to protect herself against Germany if the position in Russia continues to deteriorate,” a Sydney message reports M. Mikheyev as saying. “England needs a second front more than Russia,” he added. “Only a second front will prevent Germany from withdrawing her forces from Russia and hurling them at England. “If the Germans succeed in forcing their way across the Volga before winter they will be in a position to send troops against England. Germany will need only a comparatively small force then to hold Russia in position, and her main forces can be diverted I against England.”