VICTORY OR DEATH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 September 1942, Page 3

VICTORY OR DEATH

MR WILLKIE ON RUSSIAN SPIRIT . DETERMINATION TO DESTROY HITLER. SECOND FRONT QUESTION. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, September 25. Mr Wendell Willkie, who is visiting the war zones on President Roosevelt’s behalf, has just returned to Mosctow after a trip to the Rzhev sector. He spent two nights within five miles of the front line, and had long talks with officers and men of the Russian army. He also interviewed German prisoners. Mr Willkie said he was tremendously impressed with everything he saw of the Soviet army. He asked one Russian general how much territory he was defending, and the Russian general replied through an interpreter: “Tell Mr Willkie I am not defending any; I am attacking.” Mr Willkie told Pressmen that in Russia you realise the real meaning of the phrase the “people’s war.” The Russian people were resolved to destroy Hitler. Five million Russians had been killed or wounded or were missing ,while at least 60,000,000, or nearly one-third of the population, were slaves in territory controlled by Hitler. There was no talk of quitting. For Russia it was victory or death. Another message quotes Mr Willkie as saying that the best way to help Russia was to open a second front in Europe at the earliest moment approved by allied military leaders and that: “Next summer might be too late.” Mr Willkie left Moscow for Kuibyshev this morning. A grand reception at which he was entertained at the Kremlin last night was attended by Mm. Stalin and Moltov and other Soviet leaders and also by the British and American Ambassadors.