Thursday, January 25, 1940

THE BRITISH LOSE ANOTHER DESTROYER. For the second time in a week, a British destroyer has fallen prey to Nazi armaments. James MacDonald writes in Wednesday’s New York Times on the destruction of the Exmouth, a 1.475-ton vessel which was sunk yesterday by a German mine or torpedo, while on solitary patrol at sea. Her entire crew of at least 175 men was lost -- the first time a major British ship has been sunk with all hands. Another destroyer, the Grenville, was sent to the bottom last week-end. Britain has now lost five destroyers since the start of the war, and seventeen ships in the last ten days.

These sinkings might not mean much in terms of winning or losing the war, but C.B.S. Berlin correspondent William Shirer said in his talk last night that the Germans “plastered the news all over the evening papers.” They’re determined, of course, to make the most out of it.

RUSSIA RENEWS THE OFFENSIVE IN KARELIA. The Russians have sent fresh troops into the Karelian Isthmus and are once again attacking the Finns’ Mannerheim Line, says Donald Day in Tuesday’s Chicago Tribune. Mr. Day credits the accuracy of Finnish artillery fire with breaking the new Soviets attacks, and says that here, as in other aspects of this polar war, the Russians have so far been outclassed. “[A]ltho the soviet artillerymen have had almost six weeks to practice against he unbroken outposts of the Mannerheim line, their marksmanship has not improved. At one Finnish battery I visited there were only eight shell holes in the vicinity. None of them was near the emplacements sheltering the guns....”

K.J. Eseklund follows up in Wednesday’s New York Times with some startling figures on what this new drive is costing the Soviets -- 5,000 dead and “many thousands more” wounded in three days of “fruitless multiple offensives.” What’s driving the Red Army in these latest attacks, he says, is simple, elemental fear -- “The desperation with which thousands of Soviet soldiers are being driven to certain death against the strong Finnish positions on the Isthmus and northeast of Lake Ladoga is cited in authoritative circles as evidence that the Russian commanding generals fear the wrath of Joseph Stalin if their failure to obtain results in Finland continues.”

GIVE FINLAND SOME REAL HELP. Congress continues to look for an agreeable way to loan the Finns more money to buy non-military goods. But an editorial in Tuesday’s Washington Post points out wisely that Finland needs more, much more, to insure her survival in the face of increasing Red air raids --

“What Finland desperately needs are fighting planes and antiaircraft guns to fight off the almost daily attacks that are making a shambles of her towns and villages. If such defensive weapons are not forthcoming, all the brilliant exploits of the Finnish army may go for naught. By paralyzing Finland’s economic life, these destructive air raids may soon or late end Finland’s capacity to resist the Red onslaught, however indestructible may be the Finnish determination to continue fighting. The democratic world has been heartened by the successes which the Finns have achieved in what appeared at the outset to be a wholly one-sided struggle. That fact may be in part responsible for the belief that the Finns, by their own exertions alone, can hold out indefinitely....This belief is as dangerous as it is mistaken. Time presses. Even the most courageous people cannot fight bombing planes with bare hands or with packages of food.”

WOULD AN EMBARGO STOP JAPAN? On Friday, the U.S.-Japanese commercial treaty expires, with no renewal or renegotiation in sight. This doesn’t stop trade between the two countries right now, but it does give the Roosevelt administration authority to declare an embargo on commerce with Japan at a moment’s notice. The President and Secretary Hull hope this threat will dissuade the Japanese government and people from further aggression in China. But a New York Herald Tribune editorial in Wednesday’s edition points out a big problem with that strategy --

“To a nation [such as Japan] that has little knowledge of the devastation and misery wrought by its ruthless armies in hundreds of defenseless Chinese cities and villages, and of the American reaction to such savagery; and to a people who have never heard how resentful a large section of the American public is of the sale to the Japanese Army of the gasoline, metals, motors, and machine tools that make all this slaughter and devastation possible; an American desire to interfere with the establishment of ‘the new order’ must seem thoroughly malicious. In a nation as systematically misinformed about its army’s doings abroad and so little aware of the evil reputation which that army has given Japan in the West, it will be a simple matter for the army’s publicists to arouse a lively resentment in Japan of any measure adopted in this country to limit the army’s destructive power in China. This is something about which we in this country can do almost nothing.”

The Herald Tribune says in summary that “if this country takes steps to discommode the Japanese Army, it will earn the hostility and not the gratitude of the Japanese people.” But the editors see no alternative -- continuing to sell the tools of war and other goods to Japan’s militarists means “promoting the slaughter and enslavement of the Chinese people.” And that we cannot do any longer.

RUMORS OF NAZI-SOVIET MILITARY OPERATIONS. Also in Wednesday’s New York Herald Tribune is an article from Bucharest by Sonia Tomara, on the escape to Rumania of thirty-one American citizens who’ve been trapped in the Soviet-occupied area of eastern Poland. According to Miss Tomara, the Americans “expressed belief that the German and Soviet military commands were preparing a joint attack on Rumania.”

Also, the new issue of Time magazine reports that Finns fighting to defend the Mannerheim Line claim to have heard a Russian loudspeaker tell them, “Surrender in 48 hours or the Germans are coming.”