The answer to those who, would seem to desire this war to proceed with the rapidity of a Hollywood scenario, and there appears to be quite a few in Shanghai, is that this is a war and not a cinema film. The tempo is somewhat different, and the Ministry of Information is wise in warning Britons to base all their calculations on the assumption that this struggle will last for at least three years. It is to be devoutly hoped that it will not, but common prudence requires that the idea that this may after all not be a short war must always be kept in mind. Thus remem~ bering this the situation at the end of what may be regarded as the first week of wat—admittedly Poland has been in it somewhat longer, but a week is the most useful unit of time at the present,—is by no means unsatisfactory. When Germany commenced her onslaught upon Poland, the only two nations fighting between whom there has been no declaration of war, she had Ju her favour all the advantages of the momentum of offend sive against the Poles who had to defend themselves on two fronts, totalling, it is claimed 1,600 miles. From Drufa in the extreme north east, she had to guard the whole of the East Prussian frontiers round to Danals, Then from the Baltic Sea on the bountary to the west of the Corridor she was on the defensive along the whole of her western border down to its junction with Slovakia, She had to hold the whole of those boundaries in force against a surprise attack at any spot along them, so that there was a general dispersal of strength over a large distance as against the ability of the Germans to attack wherever they chose with the concentrated strength of the column. It is obvious, therefore, that sooner or later the Poles would have to shorten their lines giving their armies a greater strength per mile in men than was the case at the commencement of the hostilities. The movements of the Polish armies since the commencement of hostilities, therefore, may be regarded as a series of rearguard actions, intended not to bhang on to what were strategically defenceless positions, but to wait until they could be brought into more compact formation to offer opposition to an offensive the momentum of which already shows signs of slowing down. It has already been claimed that the German timetable has been disrupted and that time does not now march so intimately wit Herr Hitler as it was at first feared. moment the Poles may be very well left to themselves in a campaign of open warfare, which may sooner or later become positional directly they have reached the line upon which they can best offer effective resistant The situation in western Burope is somewhat different, There is first the complaint that the Allied aeroplanes have not been active enough. That is refuted by the British attack on the German navy which was attended by good results, and the propaganda raids by the same air force over Germany, giving British tiers just the same chance of long distance flying as was afforded all too late by the rehearsal flights over France a month or so ago. It is reported that there is enormous Allied air activity over the Siegfried line and the terrain behind it. That is to be expected. "No Allied plane up to the declaration of war had flown over those fortifications or the area behind them. The first essential was that aerial reconnai should provide the Allied command with complete map of the German fortifications and whatever else there may be behind them, for while it is possible that it might have plenty of information supplied through espionage sources, the airmen themselves were in need of clear maps by means of which they could carry out orders in the concentration of their aerial attentions upon the spots which are eventually discovered to be weak. In this connection it must be remembered than when the final onslaught comes upon. the German defences, a few well exposed photographic plates then may be of infinitely more value than a few bombs droped now. The same thing, in different terms applies to the movement on land. Tf it took ten days in 1914 to transport 100,000 men across the Channel to France, how long will it take to transport 400,000 said to be the strength of the first expeditionary force? It is not purely a question in proportion, but it must be remembered that the precautions to be taken against loss of men in passage, and the times when they can most safely be transferred without interference from the enemy, play an important part in the matter, and Great Britain and France have not been in the war ten days yet.
Nor at present should too much anxiety be felt about the unrestricted submarine warfare of Herr Hitler. The disposition of German submarines clearly shows that he was determined on war. 'They would not' have been in the positions they were -had he not been so decided. Of the total strength of 65 German submarines—there may of course be more for Herr Hitler has not been exceptionally noted for adhering to his undertaking even when he has not denounced them,—it may be assumed that 33 of them have' been at sea fora week since war} started. The latest reports admitted that! they had sunk 13 British mercantile vessels within that time, a small total compared with what they were able to do before effective measures were devised against them during
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.