Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1943. WAR HOPES AND DANGERS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 September 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1943. WAR HOPES AND DANGERS.

PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S Message to Congress at I lie end of last week was noteworthy equally for the explicit assurance he gave of early and major extensions ol Allied offensive action against the Axis and lor the emphasis with which he “we are still a long way from ultimate victory in any theatre ol' war.” Having said that the landing in Italy was not the only one the Allies had in mind, President Roosevelt added: — At Quebec we made specific and precise plans for further blows of equal or greater importance against Germany and Japan, with definite times and places for other landings on the European continent and elsewhere. With this prospect added to what has been accomplished against the enemy of late in European and Pacific Avar theatres some people may be inclined to think that Mr Roosevelt took an exaggerated view of the distance by which the Allies are still separated from ultimate victory and that he exaggerated also in his further statement: — In all history there has never been a task so tremendous as that which we now face. In this country, for instance, a well-known politician, broadcasting last week, expressed the opinion that the war would end in the comparatively near future and that the principal task of the Parliament about to be elected in New Zealand would be that of dealing with problems of post-war reconstruction. Probably it is largely on account ol" the serious dangers involved in thinking on these lines that President Roosevelt, and others who speak with authority on behalf of the United Nations, are emphasising so sharply the magnitude of the task by which the Allies are still confronted in the war. There can be no doubt about the dangers that would arise if it came to be believed by the peoples of the countries ranged against the Axis that the war for practical purposes is already won and that victory is now to be taken for granted. The central danger to be guarded against is that of weakening divisions or of an abatement, from any cause, of the unsparing military and industrial efforts that are still demanded of the United Nations. It is a fact to be weighed soberly that all that has been accomplished of late by the valiant and successful efforts of Allied land, sea and air forces in European and other theatres, might be in great part undone if there were any slackening of the vast industrial and productive efforts that arc needed to raise the fighting power of these forces to the highest possible pitch. The only way to shorten the Avar is to strike at the enemy Avitli maximum power and effect. As President Roosevelt said in his Message to Congress, to break through the defensive ring of our enemies in the Mediterranean, in Western Europe, in Russia and in the Pacific, we must hit them, and hit them hard, not merely at one point, but at many points, and we must keep on hitting them. The alternative might be to invite a needless lengthening of the Avar, or even the disaster of something less than a final and decisive victory over “the war-breeding gangs of militarists” whose power has yet to be broken in Germany and Japan. A position has been reached in. which nothing should be allowed to stand in the way of undivided concentration on the effort for victory. It can be regarded only as a misfortune that in this country time, effort and material have been expended for several weeks past on a rather unprofitable election campaign. It is sufficiently obvious that a worthy war-winning effort demands the treatment of all problems and questions on their merits, and therefore in a manner very different from that in which some of them have been dealt with in the course of electioneering disputation.