Daily Post - 09.12.1941, Blaðsíða 2

C1
DAILY P06T
EDITORUL CONNENT
Hitler Plays His Trump jCard
.....• .
Why Japan Has Strnek Now
— ♦ ........
Japan, with all the treachery and thoroughness characteristic of the Nazi technique, has
launched spectacular blows at the main bases of British and American military and naval
power in the Far East. The implications are so vast and so varied that we will do well
to pause a moment from listtening to special bulletins and consider the causes of the new
development and the results that arte likely to follow.
■ » m. '
DAILY POST
is publisned by
Blaðahringnrinn.
Editors: S. Benediktsson.
Sgt. J. I. McGhie.
Office: 12, Austurstræti, Tel.
3715, Reykjavík. Printed by
AlþýðuprentsmiBjan
Tuesday, Dec. 9, 1941
Daily Newstelegram
Churchill and
Pikes for
Citizens
i
GHURCHILL had a jfittle
crapk iwhen he spoke on
recruiting for the Home Guard
the otber day. He said if we
haven’t enough Tifles for the
severail miHion men iwho wil 1
fight to the deai.h if this tooiuntry’s
invtaded, ‘‘we wont hesitate to
place in the oitizens’ hands 'the
pike and maoe pending further
deveiopments. A man thus aran-
ed may easiily aicquire a rtfle
for himself." [
*The Germains iwere very upset
about it. Il.e German radio yest-
erday piped indignantly about
“oivi'Iians being oai'led on to fíght
Germffln parachutists (W'ith pike
and matce, wh:ct is contrary tö
all international iaiw.“'
SHOCK FOR GERMAN PILOT
A German pdJiot ha^s just had
a nasty turn. He ,was liooking
round for British shipping .to
bomh, wihen visibility bocame (so
bad that he dcóided to make
for home. , •
H'is petrol- was runndngloiw, so
he iwas only too glad to see
a niœ aerodrome wihere the Jand-
ing ligbts were on.
He thought he had crossed the
channel, , but ú was on'ly the
Bristoili channel. He made a per-
fect lainding and was promptly
made prisoner.
NOT AFRAID OF HITLER
Mrs. El'len Fletoher, Britain’s
oldest woman, died lást night
at ,the age of .108- She drank
a igtess of bear daily and attri-
buted her Jong life $o this. When
her home iwias hit by a bomb
last wiinter Mrs- Fleídher said:
Napo'.eon Couldn’t frighten my
mother, and this youug fe’.ioWl
Hitler isn’t goin.g to frighten me.
JAPAN’S STRATEGY
/
The treachery of Japan’s at-
tack. made under cover of
insincere negotiations, need not
surprise us. It is the hall-mark
of the Axis. Far more signific-
ant are the thcroughness and
boldness of the plan, which
struck straight at the very
centres of British and American
power in the Pacific. Why, for
instance, did not Japan first
occupy Thailand and then try
and advance by stages towavds
the main objectives? First of
all, power in the Far East is
based on naval power. The
United States have just taken
over new naval obligations in
the Atlantic, and Japan may
have hoped to cripple them at
one blow and clear the way for
the occupation of many strat-
egic positions, before U.S. nav-
al power had recovered, as it
must inevitably do, even were
it temporarily crippled. Second-
ly and most important of all,
Japan cannot fight a long war,
cut off as she is now from sup-
plies of most vital raw mater-
ials. Her power to fight can
only last as long as her stocks.
Therefore she must put every-
thing into the balance now and
play high stakes for quick res-
ults. Those results are first and
foremost the defeat of the
Allied fleets in the Pacific and
capture of their bases, final
cutting of the Burma road, con-
trol of eolonial resources of the
East Indies. Therefore the main
attacks are directed against
Hawai, Manila, Malay, Singa-
pore and Thailand, which bord-
ers on Burma,
JAPAN AND GERMANY
Japan is not fighting alone
nor solely for her own
aims. Her attack is part of the
Axis plan to dominate the
world. Without Germany Japan
could not have stirred a finger.
Germany is still the key to vict-
ory or defeat in the world war.
Germany has stood . without
Japan, but Japan could not
stand a day without Germany.
The key to the future of the
war throughout the world lies
as much as ever in the German-
Russian war W.e cannot afford
to forget this, but must see the
Far Eastern war in relation to
the decisive conflict in Europe.
For, if Russia once went under,
Japan and Germany would be
free from a shortage of raw
material and would have vast
armies released against China
and the British Isles.
GERJMANY’S AIMS
apan’s aggression is Ger-
many’s last and biggest
trump card. For Germany
triumph or disaster hang on
forcing a decision in Russia be-
fore the spring. But all has not
been going well. The Russian
winter and the prospects of in-
creasing Allied supp"lies looked
like maintaining Soviet resist-
ance through the crisis. There-
fore Germany has been forced
to play her trump now. She
aims at diverting American
supplies, ships and naval
strength from supplying Russia
to defending herself, at rushing
the democracies into such a
panic that they will withdraw
aircraft, escorts, ships and sup-
plies from the west to the East
and diminsh their efforts tó
supply Russia, and thus give
Germany a chance of victory.
For us the blow is no doubt a
hard one and the decisions that
face our government heavy.
But we shall not be panicked-
Japan will probably achieve
successes at first, and perhaps
even great ones. But we must
and shall not flag either in our
cwn attacks on Germany- our
preparations for far greater at-
tacks or our plans for maximuxn
aid to Russia. In Europe the
main decision will continue to
lie; for however much the
Japanese may gain in the East,
they will be finished the day
that Germany is finished.
We do not yet knoiw iwihether
America will now be involved
in decfared ,war with Gerniany
or Russia iwith Japan 'nor hd*
the Japanese strategy iwill untnoll
itseif. But this much is o'.eair:
that the war which started
Manchuria in 1931 and de\ e oped
through Abyssinia, Spain, China
and Czechosio\’akia to the Europ'
ean war of 1939, has norar sp‘ne"
ad to the limits of the globe and
has crystaliised dnto a vast
struggle for poíwer be'Jwee0
B.i.ain, Soviet Russia and Anieiv
ica on the one sdde and Germany,
Itafy and .Japam on the other-
On the one side it is a struggí6
for strategic positions and sour-
oes of raiw materials; on tbe
other side, gradually o\-ershad'
olwing the first aspeot, it is 8
struggiLe of the demooraso'es and
the enalaved peoples ’of Europ6
and Asia agadnst Fascist aggness'
ion and exptoitation.
apan is powerful industriahy
and commeicialjy, backward
(See page 3).
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