But the Chicago Tribune and New York Herald Tribune sound more optimistic in Wednesday’s front-page reports. Donald Day claims in the Tribune that the Finns have recaptured most of the “strategic forts” along the Line that the Russians claimed to have taken earlier this week. Mr. Day quotes the official Finnish communique -- “The Mannerheim Line still holds.” The Herald Tribune says the same thing, and makes the hair-raising claim as well that Stalin has lost between 30,000 and 50,000 men in four days of fighting.
But the Finns have made another plea for international help, more urgent than ever. By coincidence, the U.S. Senate approved Tuesday by a vote of 49-27 a bill to extend the Finns $20,000,000 in new export credits -- as long as they don’t use those credits to buy weapons of war. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at this. One supposes that if the Russians do smash the Mannerheim Line, the outgunned Finnish defenders will at least be able to swat at the Reds with loaves of bread, purchased through the generosity of Congress.
ANOTHER PREDICTION -- “WHAT THE GERMANS WILL DO.” The editors of the New Republic look into their crystal ball this week, and forecast what will happen on the Western Front this spring --
“[W]e prophesy that the Germans will neither attack the Maginot Line this spring nor risk a flanking movement through the Low Countries or Switzerland. They will make all sorts of threats and feints, in order to keep the greatest possible number of Frenchmen shivering in the front lines. But unless the situation becomes desperate, they will make no real assault. Not even Hitler is willing to sacrifice as many human lives as that would cost. The effort to separate France from Great Britain, which has so far met with no success, will be hopefully continued...It takes no prophet to announce that there will be a German offensive against England. Hitler himself has promised one – by land, by sea, by air – and this is the sort of promise he is likely to keep. The air offensive will probably be directed against British docks and navy yards. The sea offensive may take the form of a greatly intensified submarine warfare against the British navy, with the hope of whittling it down or keeping it in harbor. As to the land offensive, it may be an empty threat – but even the threat of landing German troops in the British Isles is enough to keep many army divisions at home.”
But the editors assert that the East, not the West, will be the “chief theatre of German activity” in the days ahead. While the Nazis might invade Rumania or provoke a crisis with Hungary, they also face a number of big tasks. “By conquering Poland they have taken an enormous problem on their hands....How can they force this starving and sullen country to produce foodstuffs for export to Germany?” The Reich’s engineers and planners must work mightily to improve their country’s lines of communication with the east, in order to get Russian iron ore and Rumanian oil. In summary, the war could continue for a long time in a manner similar to what has happened so far.
WAR LIKELY IN THE BALKANS? An Associated Press correspondent, Edward Kennedy, sounds the alarm in a Tuesday dispatch on two events which are said to have “heightened the strong belief that a new war front will be opened in the Caucasus or the Balkans this spring.”
They are the arrival of 30,000 Australian and New Zealand troops at Suez, and reports of increased military activity in four Balkan nations. Specifically as to the latter, Mr. Kennedy says that Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, and Yugoslavia have called up men for “spring training” in the miliary and Rumania has instituted plans to swell her army 1,600,000 men by March 1. The A.P. now estimates the number of Anglo-French troops standing by in the Near East at 570,000 men, with another 700,000 Frenchmen said to be on the way. Just a few days ago, French officials dismissed an estimate of 400,000 French troops in Syria as “ridiculous.”
A map on one of the Chicago Tribune’s inside pages on Tuesday explains developments in the Near East succinctly. It puts Allied troop strength at 300,000 French soldiers in Syria, 40,000 British troops in Palestine and 200,000 more in Egypt (plus the 30,000 Anzac troops just arrived), and 350,000 men under arms in Turkey. The Tribune also mentions the Russian threat to Iran and Afghanistan, and Soviet fortification of the Caucasian border with Turkey.
PEACE LIKELY IN THE BALKANS? But an article in the current issue of Newsweek describes the recent Belgrade conference as a “comparative success” and asserts that, contrary to all the predictions lately, it’s probable that Rumania, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Turkey will be able to stay out of the war --
“Germany would rather get the now vital Balkan supplies peacefully. Russian aggression in the Balkans would probably bring direct conflict with Italy, at least rivalry with Germany, and possibly war with the Allies on two fronts -- Finland and the Balkans. And the Black Sea is a vulnerable Soviet flank. The Allies have an alliance with Turkey, although it does not operate against Russia. Their Near East force is not yet ready and anyway couldn’t undertake an offensive without Turkish help. Hence they would prefer for the immediate future to resort to economic action in the Balkans..to curtail the flow of supplies to the Reich.”
Newsweek acknowledges that none of the Balkan states have the military capability to resist outside invasion, but “if they can keep their own enmities in check, they can make invasion highly expensive for big powers already engaged on other fronts. Hence, the peninsula can probably can stay out of war just as long as none of the little group – including Bulgaria...and the Danubian neighbor Hungary -- lets itself be used as a tool by one of the belligerents.”
And, of course, as long as the Nazi appetite for Rumanian oil doesn’t exceed the willingness of the Anglo-French to allow the Rumanians to export it.
CRAZY WEATHER (III). The United Press reports Wednesday that Europeans are “in the paralyzing grip of the bitterest cold in more than 100 years.” The British and Germans alike have suffered, while the Finns have seen temperatures dip to lows not recorded since 1875. More than 10,000 people in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have suffered from severe frost-bite. The Dutch weather bureau has recorded its lowest temperature reading ever, at minus 11.2 degrees Fahrenheit. River traffic on the Rhine has been stopped since Jan. 11. Denmark and Sweden are reeling from the double-blows of extreme cold and fuel shortages.
And to top it off, the Baltic Sea is freezing over, according to the U.P. That hasn’t happened in six centuries.
There’s been as of yet no comment on this from the American Institute of Physics, which on Nov. 4 was told at their New York symposium that the world is getting rapidly warmer.
“[W]e prophesy that the Germans will neither attack the Maginot Line this spring nor risk a flanking movement through the Low Countries or Switzerland. They will make all sorts of threats and feints, in order to keep the greatest possible number of Frenchmen shivering in the front lines. But unless the situation becomes desperate, they will make no real assault. Not even Hitler is willing to sacrifice as many human lives as that would cost. The effort to separate France from Great Britain, which has so far met with no success, will be hopefully continued...It takes no prophet to announce that there will be a German offensive against England. Hitler himself has promised one – by land, by sea, by air – and this is the sort of promise he is likely to keep. The air offensive will probably be directed against British docks and navy yards. The sea offensive may take the form of a greatly intensified submarine warfare against the British navy, with the hope of whittling it down or keeping it in harbor. As to the land offensive, it may be an empty threat – but even the threat of landing German troops in the British Isles is enough to keep many army divisions at home.”
But the editors assert that the East, not the West, will be the “chief theatre of German activity” in the days ahead. While the Nazis might invade Rumania or provoke a crisis with Hungary, they also face a number of big tasks. “By conquering Poland they have taken an enormous problem on their hands....How can they force this starving and sullen country to produce foodstuffs for export to Germany?” The Reich’s engineers and planners must work mightily to improve their country’s lines of communication with the east, in order to get Russian iron ore and Rumanian oil. In summary, the war could continue for a long time in a manner similar to what has happened so far.
WAR LIKELY IN THE BALKANS? An Associated Press correspondent, Edward Kennedy, sounds the alarm in a Tuesday dispatch on two events which are said to have “heightened the strong belief that a new war front will be opened in the Caucasus or the Balkans this spring.”
They are the arrival of 30,000 Australian and New Zealand troops at Suez, and reports of increased military activity in four Balkan nations. Specifically as to the latter, Mr. Kennedy says that Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, and Yugoslavia have called up men for “spring training” in the miliary and Rumania has instituted plans to swell her army 1,600,000 men by March 1. The A.P. now estimates the number of Anglo-French troops standing by in the Near East at 570,000 men, with another 700,000 Frenchmen said to be on the way. Just a few days ago, French officials dismissed an estimate of 400,000 French troops in Syria as “ridiculous.”
A map on one of the Chicago Tribune’s inside pages on Tuesday explains developments in the Near East succinctly. It puts Allied troop strength at 300,000 French soldiers in Syria, 40,000 British troops in Palestine and 200,000 more in Egypt (plus the 30,000 Anzac troops just arrived), and 350,000 men under arms in Turkey. The Tribune also mentions the Russian threat to Iran and Afghanistan, and Soviet fortification of the Caucasian border with Turkey.
PEACE LIKELY IN THE BALKANS? But an article in the current issue of Newsweek describes the recent Belgrade conference as a “comparative success” and asserts that, contrary to all the predictions lately, it’s probable that Rumania, Yugoslavia, Greece, and Turkey will be able to stay out of the war --
“Germany would rather get the now vital Balkan supplies peacefully. Russian aggression in the Balkans would probably bring direct conflict with Italy, at least rivalry with Germany, and possibly war with the Allies on two fronts -- Finland and the Balkans. And the Black Sea is a vulnerable Soviet flank. The Allies have an alliance with Turkey, although it does not operate against Russia. Their Near East force is not yet ready and anyway couldn’t undertake an offensive without Turkish help. Hence they would prefer for the immediate future to resort to economic action in the Balkans..to curtail the flow of supplies to the Reich.”
Newsweek acknowledges that none of the Balkan states have the military capability to resist outside invasion, but “if they can keep their own enmities in check, they can make invasion highly expensive for big powers already engaged on other fronts. Hence, the peninsula can probably can stay out of war just as long as none of the little group – including Bulgaria...and the Danubian neighbor Hungary -- lets itself be used as a tool by one of the belligerents.”
And, of course, as long as the Nazi appetite for Rumanian oil doesn’t exceed the willingness of the Anglo-French to allow the Rumanians to export it.
CRAZY WEATHER (III). The United Press reports Wednesday that Europeans are “in the paralyzing grip of the bitterest cold in more than 100 years.” The British and Germans alike have suffered, while the Finns have seen temperatures dip to lows not recorded since 1875. More than 10,000 people in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have suffered from severe frost-bite. The Dutch weather bureau has recorded its lowest temperature reading ever, at minus 11.2 degrees Fahrenheit. River traffic on the Rhine has been stopped since Jan. 11. Denmark and Sweden are reeling from the double-blows of extreme cold and fuel shortages.
And to top it off, the Baltic Sea is freezing over, according to the U.P. That hasn’t happened in six centuries.
There’s been as of yet no comment on this from the American Institute of Physics, which on Nov. 4 was told at their New York symposium that the world is getting rapidly warmer.
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