Pacific News'review

Notes And Comment On

The Progress Of The War

Dec. 15, 1939— Jan. 14, 1940

December 15. —The world has ac claimed the splendid performance of the three British cruisers “Achilles”, “Ajax” and “Exeter”, in engaging the German pocket-battleship “Admiral Graf Spec” in the South Atlantic and, although out gunned, giving her such a battering that she was forced to run and shelter in the neutral port of Montevideo. The “Exeter” has gone away for repairs, al though she is not seriously damaged, but the other two cruisers, which have been joined by H.M.S. “Cumberland”, are wait ing for the German battleship outside Montevideo.

December 15.—Bitter fighting is re ported between the Finns and the Russians all along the Eastern frontier of Finland. There are growing indica tions that the Finns are holding up the Russian attack.

December 15. —R.A.F. security patrols are maintaining a continuous watch, day and night, over the bases of Germany’s mine-laying aircraft in Heligoland Bight.

In this way the Germans are being partly prevented from sending out their Dig seaplanes to lay magnetic mines in British waters.

December 15. —A British submarine sank a German submarine in the North Sea and afterwards torpedoed a large enemy cruiser. Germans claim that the cruiser was only damaged, December 15. —Rumania has agreed to increase oil shipments to Germany and to re-value the Reichsmark, so that its value-becomes 11 per cent, higher in re lation to Rumanian exchange.

Although little has been said about this in the newspapers, it definitely is a considerable economic victory for Ger many. Germany has not been getting anything like the supplies of oil she ex pects from Russia, and so Germany and Russia together have combined to put great pressure upon Rumania to make oil supplies available. The message means that Rumania has capitulated and the oil will be sold to Germany at a re duction of 11 per cent, on previous prices, and that Germany’s critical oil problem, although not solved, is at least alleviated.

December 16.—German fighter planes yesterday attacked the British air patrol over Heligoland and the biggest air battle of the war developed. About 100 planes were engaged. It is officially an nounced that the British shot down four German fighters and three British planes were lost.

December 16.—The Government of Uruguay has ordered the German battle ship “Graf Spee” to leave Montevideo harbour within 48 hours.

December 16.—Russian troops, thrust ing northwards across northern Finland, have now reached the Norwegian frontier.

The Russians also claim substantial ad vances across the “waistline” of Finland, and also in the south.

December 16.—The League of Nations has formally expelled Russia, owing to her unjustified attack upon Finland.

Members of the League have been asked to assist Finland against Russia in every possible way.

December 17.—The Finns claim to have halted the Russian advances at all pomts, and they also indicate that im portant Finnish counter-attacks are de

veloping.

December 17.—Sinking of merchant ships by Germans—mostly neutral ships

—has continued during the week. But during the week the Allies captured the German liner “Dusseldorf” (4,930 tons) and caused the sinking of the German merchantmen “Tenerilfe” tons) and “Leonhardt” (2,989 tons).

December 17.—Although Italy officially continues to insist that her pact witn Germany remains unprejudiced, the Italian newspapers show concern re garding Russia’s western advance. One leading commentator says, “It seems that the nature of the war is changing and that the main enemy of Britain and France is no longer Germany but Russia.”

There are indications * that the Italian ambassador is being withdrawn from Moscow, and that the Russian ambassa dor is leaving Rome.

December 18. —Acting under, orders from Hitler, the Captain of the German pocket-battleship “Admiral Graf Spec" took his vessel out into the River Plate estuary and scuttled her in comparatively shallow water, within territorial limits.

The German officers and crew were taken in the German steamer “Tacoma” (which had accompanied the “Gral Spec” out of harbour) to Buenos Aires, where they were interned.

December 18. —Officially announced that a British submarine torpedoed and sank a German cruiser of the Konigs berg class, 6,000 tons, at the mouth of the River Elbe on Thursday.

December 19. —Amazing success has attended the Finnish counter-attacks on the Russians on the northern and central fronts. It is now becoming clear that at least two Russian divisions, comprising 36,000 men, have been annihilated.

December 19. —An expeditionary force from Canada has landed in England and has been warmly greeted.

December 19.—Italy’s increasing inter est in the so-called safety of the Balkan countries against Russian aggression is causing uneasiness among the Balkan nations.

This development is not surprising. It is quite apparent that Italy’s foreign policy is completely opportunist—that is to say, Italy is determined to get as much as she can for herself out of the pre sent European situation. She hopes to secure territorial gains and economic ad vantages in the Balkans under the guise of being the protector of the Balkans against Russia.

December 20. —Captain Lansdorff, commander of the scuttled German battleship “Graf Spec” committed suicide by shooting himself in his bed room in a hotel in Buenos Aires. His act was expected. He said goodbye to his officers and men the previous evening.

December 20. —Germany’s third larg est liner, “Columbus”, 32,500 tons, was scuttled and sunk by her crew in the Atlantic, when she was being overtaken by a British warship. The “Columbus”, carrying a large cargo, left South American port some days ago in an attempt to get home to Germany.

December 22.—Smashed by terrific Finnish counter-attacks, and seriously embarrassed by the terrific cold of mid winter, the Russian armies are retreating in disorder on the northern and central fronts. The Finnish organisation is in tact and the morale of the Finns is very high. Finland, already, is being aided by volunteers who are entering the coun try in large numbers. Swedish volunteers are already in Finland, and Italian and Spanish pilots have already taken part

in Finnish air raids on the Russians December 22. —Emphasising Britisn efficiency in air lighting, it is stated that not a single British lighter has been shot down in the United Kingdom since war broke out. Yet, during ol engage ments over British land and sea, in October and November, 21 German raiders have been destroyed—being nearly half the enemy aircraft engaged.

December 22.—Military experts con tinue to be greatly intrigued by the enormous concentration of German forces near the Western front, in a position which will allow the Germans to make an attack in great strength on either the Belgian, the Dutch or the Luxem bourg frontier.

December 26.—A complete unit of the Royal Australian Air Force, intended for service in Europe, has disembarked at an English port and has been warmly received. It will retain Australian ident ity but will operate as part of the Royal Air Force.

December 27. —It is now clear that the Russians have suffered a major disaster in their war against Finland, and that their losses of men and materials on the central and northern fronts have been enormous. Some divisions have been com pletely destroyed, and the Finns have captured very large quantities of war material.

The Russian armies were driven for ward to the attack with poor equipment, bad leadership and a low spirit, and the Finns trapped them in all sorts of ways.

A favourite device was to mine the ice of the frozen lakes, over which the Russians advanced, and when the ex plosions destroyed the ice, thousands of Russians were drowned.

December 28. —Thousands of people were killed and enormous damage done by a series of violent earthquakes in Anatolia, Turkey. Anatolia is the moun tainous portion of Asia Minor which lies roughly between the Black Sea and Syria.

December 29. —A German submarine torpedoed a British battleship of the Queen Elizabeth class, west of Scotland.

Some damage was done and three men were killed. The battleship proceeded to port under her own power.

December 29. —In the twelfth volume of Mussolini’s speeches and writings, which has just been officially published, there is the text of a letter written from Mussolini to Lord Runciman, when the latter was meditating in Czecho-Slovakia, trying to effect a settlement, in the middle of 1938. Mussolini wrote: “If Hitler has designs on 3,560,000 Czechs, he would en tirely justify Europe’s excitement and anxiety. But I can assure you, in con fidence, that Hitler would not take the Czechs, even if they were offered to him.

Hitler is concerned with Germans only.”

A leading French commentator says: "This proves that Hitler misled even h!s closest allies, and the fact that the letter now is published by Mussolini is a signi ficant indication of Mussolini’s present attitude.” - December 29.—A German air pilot who had a distinguished record in the last war, and two other German pilots with notable records, have joined the Citizen’s Air Force in South Africa. They said that they had been proud to fight for Ger many—but they will not fight for the Nazis.

December 31. —Foreign Minister of

China says that Japan may get out of China in 1940. “The Japanese are now at the end of their rope”, he said. “The New Year will see their serious weaken ing in a military and economic sense.”

December 31. —The Finns have thrown back the Russians from their frontier at still another point, and there are more reports of great confusion and loss in the Russian armies. Volunteers and muni tions from abroad are beginning to pour into Finland. Some Italian airmen have arrived there with their machines and are already fighting, and the first con tingent of Fiimish volunteers from Canada has arrived.

January I.—The Rome radio says that Russia has massed 809.000 men on the frontier of Afghanistan, and that Britain and France are organising an expedi tionary force of 300.000 men in Syria as a precautionary measure. According to Italian sources, Russians also are con centrating troops in the Caucasus.

The source of these statements— namely, the Rome radio —is not very re liable, although it is worth remembering that the Rome radio announced that “a bit of bad luck” had overtaken the “Graf Spee” nearly 30 hours before the news of the battle was published. The Italians, as neutrals, of course, have ac cess to sources of news which are closed to the British and French.

In view of all her troubles in Finland, it seems unlikely that Russia would con centrate such large armies as stated. On the other hand, it is estimated that Russia has 6,000,000 organised and equip ped troops, available for use. It is ob vious that if Russia is to march against the Allies, one of her first moves, and one most calculated to embarrass the Allies, would be a thrust down through the Caucasus and South-West Asia against the great pipe -lines in Palestine, in Iraq and in Persia, from which come much of the oil supplies which are vital to the war organisation of Britain and Prance.

January 1. —Nazi officials were keenly interested in six visits made to the Ger man Foreign Office last week in Berlin by the Papal Nuncio. There were other indications in Rome and elsewhere that a strong effort was made during the Christrras-New Year season to initiate serious discussions of peace; but the in sistence of the Allies that "hey could place no reliance whatever in any assur ance given by the Nazi Government has put an end to all peace moves.

January 2. —A proclamation has been issued in Britain making liable lor im mediate service nearly 2,000,000 men be tween the ages of 19 and 27.

January 3.—The newspapers com mented with astonishment upon the completeness with which Britain and France have succeeded in merging their national interests.

Not only have all the efforts of the enemy to sow discord between the Allies been a complete failure, but Britam and Prance have completed an economic and financial as well as a military alliance, without any friction, which is more com plete than anything known in the Great War. Some optimists see in this the first important step in the direction of a federation of European mtions, in which they insist there lies the only hope of world peace.

January 2.—The Russians, with fresh masses of men and material, made efforts to break through the Mannerhelm Line on the central front but were repulsed with great slaughter. All reports agree that the Russian troops are suffering terribly from the cold. Large numbers

of men who had been wounded are found frozen to death.

January 2.—lt is officially estimated that the area affected by the Turkish earthquake is 1,500 square miles and that 45,000 people have been killed. It prob ably is the greatest earthquake disaster ever recorded in that part of the world.

Thousands of people who escaped from the earthquake were drowned in phen omenal floods.

January 3. —Another series of earth quakes has caused much further damage in Anatolia, and the floods have spread to a new area.

January 3.—The British cruiser “Ajax” paid a visit to Montevideo and, although Uruguay is a neutral country, enthusi astic crowds of people gave the men of the “Ajax” a heroes’ welcome, in recog nition of the part performed by the “Ajax” in the destruction of the German battleship “Graf Spee”.

January 3.—There was a great air battle over the North Sea, when 13 Ger man long-range fighters attacked three British bombers. The battle lasted for hours. The outnumbered British destroyed three German planes. One of the three British planes got back—the other two were lost.

January 4. —The United States Presi dent, in a special message to Congress warned the Americans that their future was bound up with the rest of the world, and that they could not ignore the issues of the war. "The future world will be a shabby and dangerous place to live in, even for Americans, if it is ruled by force concentrated in the hands of a few”, said Roosevelt.

January 4.—A splendid impression was created in Sydney by the march througn the streets of 6,000 men of the newly organised Australian overseas force. Half a million sightseers eagerly compared the young men with the old A.1.F., and opinion seemed unanimous that they measured up to the high standard of 1914-18.

January 5. —It is officially announced, in London, that Britain, in the interests of the efficient conduct of the war, is extending the policy of requisitioning shipping, and at an early date will take control of all ships on the United King dom and Colonial registers engaged in deep-sea trade.

January s.—Lord Lothian, the British Ambassador in the United States pre dicted that Germany in the spring would launch a terrific attack on Britain and France by land, sea and air, using every weapon in her armory, because the issue before Germany was that of world dom ination or her own downfall. He said the Allies were ready, but they wanted the United States to understand that there was a distinct possibility of “an unutter able disaster which might extinguish the light of freedom in Europe”.

January 7. —A political sensation was caused by the resignation of Mr. Hore- Belisha as secretary for war, and his re placement by Mr. Oliver Stanley. No explanation has been given beyond the publication of letters which indicate that there was friction between Mr. Hore- Belisha, as head of the Department of War, and the British generals in com mand of the British Army.

There is a strong suggestion that Mr.

Hore-Belisha, who is a Jew, was driven out because of his unconventional and democratic character, which was not ac ceptable to the military “brass hats”.

January 7.—The Government of Hol land officially announces that any aggres sion affecting the integrity of Dutch ter ritory will meet with the utmost armed

resistance of which Holland is capable.

This is accepted as a warning directed straight at the German strategists.

January 7.—The King of Rumania, addressing a military parade in Bess arabia, warned Russia that Rumania would risist with all her force any attempt by Russia to seize Bessarabia.

The newspapers are inclined to applaud this bold declaration; but the transfer of Bessarabia from the control of Russia to the control of Rumania was one of the most improper things of the uost war settlement. Racially and geographi cally, Bessarabia belongs to Russia, and its transfer to Rumania represented only the honouring of a very unpleasant bar gain made between Rumania and the Allies early in the Great War.

January 9.—lt is announced that the Japanese Government has agreed to withdraw troops from South and Central China within two years after peace has been arranged with the proposed “Pup pet” Governments in South and Central China.

January 9.—Giving evidence before an official committee in Washington, Admiral Starke argued in favour of the concentration of American naval strength in the north-west Pacific. He said that the United States could count on British goodwill, and probably on direct assist ance from Britain if American interests were menaced in any way by forces in Europe, and this made it unnecessary to maintain a large fleet in the Atlantic.

January 10.—It is stated that the Finns defeated and practically annihilated the Russian Ninth Army Corps, comprising 50.000 men, in the battles between De cember 24 and January 7.

January 10. —Germany acknowledges that, at the urgent request of Russia, she stopped the transit of Italian planes and guns to Finland, across Germany, and sent the consignments back to Italy.

Only the first consignment of Italian planes reached the Finns. The reaction of Italy is awaited with interest.

January 10. —There are reports that Germany proposes shortly to offer to mediate in the conflict between Russia and Finland and, in that event, it is expected that Russia will accept Ger many’s proposals.

January 10. —There has been a sharp increase in the attacks on British and neutral shipping by German submarines and aeroplanes. Several ships of consid erable size have been sunk, including the Union Castle liner, “Dunbar Castle”, 10.000 tons, which was mined off the south-east coast of England yesterday.

January 11.—The most widespread enemy raids of the war occurred to-day when German planes crossed the British coast. No bombs were dropped. The enemy planes disappeared eastward whenever British fighters appeared.

These flights, of course, are arranged to give young pilots practice in flying over enemy territory, and especially in navigation, in preparation for work to come.

January 11.—Picked Russian troops now are concentrated on the central Finnish frontier and are making a de termined attempt to advance to Swedish frontier, thus cutting Finland in two, at the “waistline”.

January 12.—Since the outbreak of war, half a million well-trained men have been added to Britain’s fighting strength.

January 14. —British planes, on Friday night, made the most extensive flights of the war, penetrating far into Germany, and, displaying marked navigational skill, they reached Vienna and Prague, where they dropped pamphlets. All returned.