GENERAL ADVANCE INTO CYRENAICA

Waikato Times, Volume 129, Issue 21583, 20 November 1941, Page 5

GENERAL ADVANCE INTO CYRENAICA

OVER FIFIY MILES COVERED NEW ZEALANDERS IN ACTION LITTLE OPPOSITION FROM THE ENEMY ARMY, NAVY AND AIR FORCE CO-OPERATE LONDON, Nov. 19 New Zealand soldiers are once more in action. This time they are part of the huge Allied Bth Army in the estem Desert and at dawn yesterday morning all forces crossed the border from Egypt into Cyrenaica. The latest report of the progress of the campaign says that over 50 miles of enemy territory was occupied the first day with little opposition and that operations were proceeding to plan. The Army, Navy and Air Force ‘ co-operating in the drive to remove the German threat to the Suez Canal from North Africa. The Army in the field is under the command of Lieut.-General Sir Alan Cunningham (who led the successful campaign in East Africa last year), the Navy is under the control of Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham (brother of Sir Alan Cunningham), and the Air Force is under the command of Air Vice-Marshal Codingham. Prior to the launching of the drive the three branches of the sendees bombed and bombarded the enemy positions relentlessly for hours. The campaign to date has been undertaken in pouring rain, this assisting in the element of surprise. It has been stated that the majority of prisoners so far taken have been Germans, not Italians. British armoured units crossed the border near the coast north-west of Sidi Omar and they were supported by the heavy guns of the Royal Navy. At the same time New Zealand, South African and Indian troops crossed the border on a 150-mile front from Sidi Omar to Jarabub and the whole line has apparently advanced the 50 miles into enemy territory. With considerable air support both before and during the operation, the observation and interference by the enemy from the air on the first day were practically negligible. OPERATIONS EARLIER THAN BEFORE CAMPAIGN OF LAST YEAR The opening of the long-awaited British campaign in the Western Desert is some three weeks earlier than General \\ a veil - successful drive of last year when, commencing on December 8, he drove the Italian Army from Solium right back to beyond Benghazi, capturing thousands upon thousands of Italian prisoners.

The campaign of last year was over in a remarkably short time, but on April 8 of this year German and Italian forces recaptured most of the territory back again when the W estern Desert Army was considerably weakened to send all possible aid to Greece which the Germans attacked on April

During this operation the British held tenaciously to Tobruk and, garrisoned for most of the time by a majority of Australian forces, have withheld all attempts by the enemy to capture this important port. Strong British forces, therefore, seriously threaten the flank of the enemy.

The great improvement in the Allied air support will also give the Allied Army a great advantage compared with their victorious campaign of last year.

MINISTER CRITICISED LORD PONSONBY’S ATTACK ACTIVITIES OF DUKE (United Press Assn. —Elec. Tel. Copyrignu LONDON, Nov. 18 Lord Ponsonby declared in the House of Lords that he was very sure he was under observation by Mr Herbert Morrison, Minister of Home Security. Lord Ponsonby said Mr Morrison’s remark last month that he was “interested” in the activities of the Duke of Bedford, though he had not detained him, was irrelevant, and that there were other members of the House of Lords who might be included in Mr Morrison’s remark.

YOUNGER OFFICERS DECISION IN CANADA (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyrlfrru) OTTAWA, Nov. 18 The Minister of Defence, Colonel J. L. Ralston, announced that henceforth major-generals in the Canadian Army will retire at the age of 57, brigadiers and colonels at 54, and lieu-tenant-colonels at 51. He said the conditions of modern war imposed a degree of physical and mental exertion resulting, with rare exceptions, in officers above certain ages being unequal to the strain. This decision would not be applied to officers at base units.

NAZIS’ NEW ORDER NO INDEPENDENT HOLLAND (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) LONDON, Nov. 18 According to a Dutch correspondent of the Times, Seyss-Inqart, the Nazi governor of Holland, declared there was no place for an independent Netherlands under Germany’s new order in Europe. Hitler, he said, wanted to absorb the Dutch as comrades, with equal spiritual and cultural rights. The Dutch belonged to the same race as the Germans, but unlortunately had not developed the same way, and this fault must be corrected. ATTITUDE OF RUSSIA .ADHERENCE TO PACT (United Press Assn. —Elec. Tel. Copyrlgnt) LONDON, Nov. 19 Asked by a correspondent if Russia shared Britain’s attitude toward the United States in the event of war in the Pacific the Soviet spokesman, M. Lozovsky, replied: “This cannot be discussed at a press conference.” He added that Russia adhered to the Russo-Japanese pact. The Japanese Domei news agency reports another frontier incident between Japanese and Soviet troops The Japanese allege that a Russian unit crossed the border last Sunday. Two Russians were captured and one was killed.

‘•I ask for some protection against this method of insinuation and attack.” said Lord Ponsonby. “Mr Morrison seems intent on putting the finishing touches to his Gestapo, getting it more into the Himmler model. But I think there is sufficient opinion in Britain to show a great dislike for such methods. Mr Morrison has completely disregarded his advisory recommendations in about 100 cases. This is absolutely unfettered discretion in danger, and the very fact that people can be removed by a nod from Mr Morrison is a danger that should be dealt with before it goes further.” Lord Simon, replying, said: “Lord Ponsonby was in error when he said that Mr Morrison’s observations were wholly irrelevant. The Duke of Bedford has gone to pains to circulate his opinions in quarters where they might be received. I regard those opinions as utterly irresponsible and completely pestilential, but the Duke is fortunate that he is a British subject. I hope the House will agree that it is just possible to make a little overmuch of these things in time of war and that vc had better get on with our work.**

INDIA’S FUTURE

REPLY TO CRITICISM RIGHTS OF PEOPLES SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT (omcial Wireless) (Received Nov. 20. 11 a.m.) RUGBY, Nov. 19 Mr L. C. Amery, Secretary of State for India speaking at a Manchester luncheon, said: “There could be no more typical instance of loose thinking than the clamour for what is called the application of the Atlantic Charter to India and the protest against the Prime Minister’s perfectly clear explanation that Article 3 of the charter primarily referred to the restoration of national life in Europe, and in any case did not qualify in any way our own declaration as to India’s future, with which it is in entire harmony. “After all, what does the article say? It says that among the prin-

ciples on which Mr Churchill and Mr Roosevelt base their hopes for a better future for the world is respect for, the rights of all peoples to choose the form of Government under which they will live. How far does that carry us in regard to India? It gives no indication as to whether India is to be regarded as one people or several. It does not say by what method the form of Government is to be decided. It lays down no procedure and no time-table. On all these points it naturally does not attempt either to give guidance or impose any precise obligation. I can well imagine that if, in answer to the demand for a statement of our Indian policy, we had answered merely in the terms of the Atlantic Charter, the derision and indignation which would have met so vague and unsatisfactory a reply.

these conditions do not exist in India, at any rate in the India of today. That is why the All-Indian Federal Constitution of 1935, devised with such infinite care or forethought, has failed to command support. “Rightly or wrongly, the experience of provincial self-Government on British parliamentary lines has convinced the Moslems and the States that they cannot submit to any central Government for India in which the executive is directly dependent upon a parliamentary majority, which, if provincial experience, is any guide, would only be an obedient mothpiece of the Congress High Command. Task for Indians

Far-reaching Answer “The answer we did give in August last year was no less far-reaching in its scope and far more definite in the procedure envisaged and in the pledge involved. It defined as our proclaimed and accepted goal that free and equal partnership in the British Commonwealth which is usually referred to as Dominion status. That status, combining as it does all the advantages of unfettered freedom with those of association of incalculable value, both in peace and war, is, I venture to assert, the highest in the world. It is the status of this country and we at any rate are not insensible either of the practical advantage or of the honour of our position. “It went on in the very spirit of the Atlantic Charter to make it clear that we wished India to enjoy that position under the constitution framed primarily by Indians for Indians, in accordance with India’s conceptions. We added that while completion of that undertaking obviously could not take place in the middle of a life-and-death struggle we were ready to welcome and promote any steps which representative Indians might take to come together and prepare the ground, and that we agreed to the settling up, with the least possible delay after the war, of a body representative, of the principal elements of India’s national life, and pledged ourselves to lend every aid in our power to hasten decisions on all relevant matters.

“The inherent difficulties in the way of a federation on British parliamentary lines are not, of course, in themselves obstacles either to federalism or democracy. Free Government has many forms, and we should be the last to proclaim a sealed pattern for liberty. “I am not going to suggest any particular direction in which an alternative solution can best be sought. That is precisely the task which we have invited the Indians to undertake for themslves, in accordance with their own conceptions and own conditions and for which they are clearly best fitted. The task before Indian statesmanship is, no doubt, immensely difficult, but it is certainly not hopeless. Beneath all the differences of religion, culture, race and political structure there is underlying unity. There is a fundamental geographical unity which has walled India off from the outside world, while at the same time erecting no serious internal barriers. “There is a broad unity of race which makes Indians as a whole, whatever their differences among themselves, a distinctive type among the main races of mankind.

“So far as we are concerned we have offered the utmost expedience in bringing about a constitutional settlement after the war. The actual timetable is in the main, in the hands of the Indians themselves. Free Self-Government

“So long as the defence of India requires the permanent presence—as distinguished from help in a great emergency—of British forces, it is obvious that the Government which provides those forces is entitled to retain measures of control over their employment in peace, as well as over the external policy which may call for their employment in war. That is not a derogation of status but a concession to the facts of a particular situation. “The framing of a scheme of free self-Government had never been possible except on the basis of free negotiation, compromise, and eventual agreement between the many elements concerned. The insistence upon the necessity of agreement rulled out any constitution decided by a mere majority vote. Congress had demanded a settlement by a constituent assembly, elected by universal adult sufferage over the whole of India, but had yet to learn that the conditions under which it could exercise its influence and fulfil the ideals of self-Government of India had yet to be agreed on with the other elements which are not prepared to consider a Congress majority as having moral authority over them or any other material sanction than that of the existing British authorities.” Mr Amery added: “What we—and most Indian politicians in the past—have overlooked is that our type of constitution can only work in a relatively homogeneous community in which the parties are the machinery for the expression of differences, either of way of life or .underlying loyalties. Unfortunately

There is a political unity which she has enjoyed from time to time in her history and which we have confirmed in a far stronger fashion than any of our predecessors in the unity of administration of the law, of economic development, and of communications. I would say, indeed, that if some sort of Indian unity had not existed it would have to be invented.”