GREAT EVENTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 June 1943, Page 3

GREAT EVENTS

IMPENDING IN EUROPE & PACIFIC EXPECTANCY IN BRITAIN. KEYED TO HIGHEST PITCH. (By Telegraph —Press Association— Copyright) w LONDON, June 7. “The Times” in a leading’ article says “Mr Churchill resumed his place of leadership in the United Kingdom at a moment when expectation is keyed up to the highest pitch.

“The presence in Washington of Allied commanders from the Asiatic front and the direct public reference to that theatre in Mr Churchill’s address to Congress made it plain that the conference was particularly intended to bring the war with Japan into a true peispective after the period in which the apparent inaction of the United Nations undei the series of setbacks had caused some fear that the dangers in the Far East were being under-estimated. Enough has been divulged of the general purport of the proceedings in Washington to reassure the doubters. “There has been a tendency in the United States as well as in China to raise the issue of priority between the two great halves of the war, and the answer given has been that the United Nations are now making ready to grapple with both enemies simultaneously. “Looking out once more to Europe from Downing Street, Mr Churchill will perceive that friend and foe alike have become, since his absence, more acutely conscious, of the imminence of tremendous events. The battle of Europe has already begun with the mightiest preliminary bombardment in all history, which is laying great arsenals in the German Reich ini ruins and silencing the defences that guard the approaches to Italy. ‘On the testimony of Dr. Goebbels, the imminence of an invasion is now spoken of as a matter of course in Germany, but, while it is legitimate to extract so much encouragement from the enemy, it is well not to move on hasty and over-ambitious conclusions. The invasion of Europe can only be rightly and safely regarded as the most formidable undertaking in military history, and it will be opposed by desperate and still undefeated men. Whatever the hopes and fears of the vassal States, whatever the fissures that threaten in German-ridden Europe, it would be unwise in the extreme to count upon any triumphs beyond that which an adequate effective force can impose. “It cannot be presumed even yet that the Allies have had time now to mobilise the full strength needed to bring Germany to her knees, and the days which lie ahead may be very long, very arduous and very costly.”