Taking it all in all the Nazis have not yet made such huge territorial gains as might have been expected. but the lines of the German have advanced a long way. The question is whether the Russians have in reserve' sufficient men and equipment for points at which the enemy would be operating at the end of long lines of communications; if they have, the Nazis may be in serious trouble.
We can safely discount the figures of aeroplanes and tanks destroyed given out by Berlin, because Nazi arithmetic in such matters has over ^nd over again been proved inaccurate. German statements about terviforial gains are probably more nearly correct though some caution is necessary in interpreting them.
I think that, on the whole, we can accept the territorial position as being roughly as the Germans announce it; that we can safely disbelieve the Nazis' figures of planes and tanks Aestroyed. and of prisoners captured; while there is even enemy confirmation that the Russian forces are ^utting up the strongest of resistance. Russia possesses a huge army. and for this reason the loss or gain of territory is not of vital consideration. provided the army is kept intact, retains or conserves its air force and mechanized equipment, and avoids large-scale encirclements by the panzer divisions of the enemy-their favour for initial successes. 253 tionally regarded as entitled to the right of asylum, Japan has gone through a period of serious reconsideration of her position and, although everything is far from being crystal clear, the news from Tokyo suggests that the Japanese Government is disinclined to get embroiled in the European War, at any rate for the present. There is evidence that Hitlers treachery to Russia has caused misgiving in Tokyo, for if one thing has been made The: abundantly clear it is that pacts with the Nazis have no meaning whenever if suits the Nazis to break them.
As a gesture aimed at mollifying Japanese opinion, Germany and Italy have extended formal recognition to the regime of Mr. Wang Ching-wei at Nanking, and the Axis-dominated Governments of Rumania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia, as well as Spain have followed suit.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.