The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 5

THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN, MONDAY, JUNE 23, 1941 5 NAZIS MARCH AGAINST RUSSIA Hitler's Excuses for Attack MR. CHURCHILL OFFERS OUR HELP TO RUSSIA "I Warned Stalin of What Was Coming" HITLER TRYING TO CLEAR SCENE FOR "FINAL ACT" 302 R.A.F.'s Astonishing, New Victory FIGHTERS' BATTLE Another Sweep Over Northern France FRONT SOVIET BOMBED DAMASCUS NOW FREE FRENCH Gains Elsewhere MERJ AYOUM STILL RESISTING Yesterday's communique from British G.H.Q., Cairo, on Syria reads As the result of continued pressure by British. Indian, and Free French troops, Vichy forces yesterday evacuated Damascus, which was occupied by Free French troops. In all other areas fight, ing is continuing, with local gains everywhere to our credit It is learned in London that a column of motor-transport moving from Damascus to Beirut has been machine-gunned by the R.A.F. and 36 vehicles put out of action.

The fighting in the Merj Ayoum area is still severe, it is also stated. General de Gaulle, speaking in Cairo, said The fall of Damascus must lead to a rapid end of resistance by Vichy forces in Syria. As a man I think this painful battle is one of Hitler's most horrible successes. He has succeeded, thanks to the treachery of dishonourable leaders, in using against France and her allies the valour of the LAND TOWNS Finland Dragged in Behind all this glare I see that small group of men who planned, organised, and launched this cataract of horrors upon mankind. Then my mind goes back across the years to the days when the Russian armies were our allies against the same deadly foe.

when they fought with so much valour and helped to gain a victory from a share in which, alas they were, through no fault of ours, utterly cut out. I have lived through all this, and you will pardon me if I express my feelings at the stir of old memories. BRITAIN'S DECLARATION But now I have to declare the decision of his Majesty's Government, and I feel sure it is a decision in which the great Domiiions will in due course concur. But we must speak it now at once, without a day's delay. I have to make a declaration, but can you doubt what our policy will be We have but one aim and one single irrevocable purpose.

We are resolved to destroy Hitler and every vestige of the Nazi regime. From this nothing will turn us nothing. We will never parley, we will never negotiate with Hitler or any of his gang. We shall fight him by land, we shall fight him by sea, we shall fight him in the air until, with God's help, we will rid the earth of all those who have shadowed it and liberate the peoples from his yoke. Any man or State who fights against Nazism will have our aid.

Any man or State who marches with Hitler is our foe. This applies not only to an organised State, but to all representatives of that vile race of Quislings who make themselves the tools and agents of the Nazi regime against their fellow-countrymen and against the land of their birth. These Quislings, like the Nazi leaders themselves, have not been disposed of by their fellow-countrymen, which would save trouble, but will be delivered by us on the morn of victory to the justice of the Allied tribunals. That is our policy and that is our declaration. It follows therefore that we shall give whatever help we can to Russia and to the Russian people.

We shfll appeal to all our friends and Allies in every part of the world to take the same course and pursue it, as we shall, faithfully and steadfastly to the end. We have offered to the Government of Soviet Russia any technical or economic assistance which is in our power and which is likely to be of service to them. Germany began an attack on Russia without formal warning along a front of 1,500 miles at dawn yesterday, with the assistance of the Rumanians, who have attacked Bessarabia. Mr. Churchill has offered Russia whatever help vve can give.

The Germans claim that they have Finnish help, but the Finnish Minister in Washington, after communicating with his Government by telephone, said last night, "Finland is not at war, but against her svis'nes has again been dragged into the midst of international turmoil." There is little news of the land fighting and none from the Russian side, but the Germans have bombed Russian towns and the Russians places in Finland. Some Moscow reports speak of a revolt in Estonia. A proclamation by Hitler announcing that the German armies were on the march accused Russia of "working with Britain for the same ends," condemned the Russian occupation of the Baltic as directed only against Germany," and declared, Bolshevism is opposed to National Socialism in deadly enmity." Ribbentrop, in a Note handed to the Soviet Ambassador in Berlin, alleged that Sir Stafford Cripps had been negotiating in Moscow for "still closer collaboration" between Britain and Russia. To this Mr. Molotoff, the Soviet Vice-Premier, replied with a broadcast statement in which he said that all responsibility for this "robber attack" fell on Hitler and his "bloodthirsty clique" of oppressors.

He predicted that Hitler would meet the same fate as Napoleon. The Moscow radio, heard in Stockholm last night, said that an alliance between Russia, Britain, and the United States was now under consideration. Rome radio said Italy now considered herself at war with Russia. RUSSIA TOLD OF OUR VIEW The Common Enemy IMPLICATIONS OF THE ATTACK From our Diplomatic Correspondent London, Sunday Night. There is no doubt that the German attack upon Soviet Russia was long and carefully planned by the German General Staff.

The Germans will devote stupendous "effort to try in Russia as elsewhere to obtain a quick decision. No demands or negotiations preceded this German attack for the simple reason that the Russians were to be completely surprised by the tearing up of the German-Russian Non-aggression Treaty overnight. The political propaganda campaign preceding Germany's aggression had, after all, lasted for nearly twenty years, and even in the past two years the Germans had not stopped reading "Mein in the purely imperial aspects the anti-Russian ideas in that work were an ancient German heritage. But it seems inconceivable that the Russians were not militarily fully on guard. Soviet Russian policy towards Germany has been almost unbelievably stupid, but there was never trust in the German Government.

That the Germans should have placed at least a hundred of their divisions, which means the best of their Army, upon the enormous Russian frontiers shows their complete confidence that they will be able to fight the Russian campaign undisturbed on other European fronts. They may be wrong, but clearly they do not think so. The Foreign Secretary received the Soviet Ambassador this morning, and a long discussion took place. The German attack upon Russia came as no surprise to Mr. Eden.

The form of the attack, the date when it would take place, and Russian attitude to it were the only matters about which there was not the fullest knowledge. BRITAIN'S POSITION Russia had had the fullest warning about the German military concentrations and, in fact, had never denied their existence, but had only offered a depreciatory but unconvincing explanation of them. Nevertheless the British attitude towards German aggression against all countries and to those who resisted it was made known to the Soviet Government before the German attack took place. It may be simply stated those who are fighting against the Germans are fighting the same battle as Great Britain. The political aims of Germany in invading Soviet Russia are clear.

She wishes to crush the Soviet's military power and to bring the National Socialist revolution to a Russia which would have its subordinate place in the German scheme of world power. In this grandiose plan all opposing regimes. Communist and democratic alike, are destined for destruction. Germany wants Russian economic resources of land, grain, oil, and metals, and the grio is never intended to be released. Tactically, Germany aims at confusing world opinirn.

particularly that of the United States, and perhaps too in this country, by reviving the old myth of the Third Reich as the anti-Bolshevik crusade. This confused the minds of the governing and influential classes in all countries and served as the cloak, for German imperial ambitions which have ended in the conquest of almost the whole of Europe. Germany calculates it may well succeed again. Anything is worth trying to induce the United States to cease aid to Britain and thus cripple British resistance. The world would then indeed be at Germany's feet.

JAPAN, SPAIN, AND OTHERS So far there are no reactions available from Japan, with whom Russia recently entered into a treaty of neutrality. Japan was probably privy to German long-range intentions towards Soviet Russia, though she may not have been acquainted with the exact details of the German time-table. Whether Japan, who is allied with Germany in the Three-Power Pact and, with Germany, is the original anti-Comintern treaty-maker, will collaborate directly or indirectly in the German war against Russia remains to be seen. But in Japan as in Spain the attack will probably be regarded as the return of Axis policy to its true aims. Germany's pact with Russia was never appreciated in the Peninsula.

In the Balkans opinion will be GERMANS CLAIM AIR SUCCESSES Fighting on River Bug and in Rumania's Lost Provinces "WE SHALL BOMB GERMANY NIGHT AND DAY" We shall bomb Germany bv dav as well as by night in ever-increasing measure, casting upon them month by month a heavier discharge of bombs and making the German people taste and gulp each month a sharper dose of the uiiacrieB mev nave snowered upon mankind. It is noteworthy that only yesterday the Royal Air Force, fighting inland over France, cut down with very small loss tc themselves 28 of the Huh fighting machines in the air above the French soil they have invaded, defiled, and professed to hold. But this is only a beginning. From now henceforward me mam expansion or our Air Force proceeds with gathering speed. In another six months the weight of the help we are receiving from the United States in war material of all kinds especially in heavy bombers, will begin to tell.

This is no class xvar. This is a war in which the whole British Empire and Commonwealth of Nations is engaged without distinction of race, creed, or party. It is not for me to speak of the action of the United States, but this I will say: If Hitler imagines that his attack on Soviet Russia will cause the slightest division of aim or slackening of effort in the great democracies who are resolved on his doom he is woe-Continued on page 6 Britain is to give all possible aid to Russia. Mr. Churchill gave this pledge in a world-wide broadcast last night.

We shall give whatever help we can to Russia and to the Russian people. We shall appeal to all our friends and Allies in every part of the world to take the same course and pursue it as we shall faithfully and steadfastly to the end. We have offered to the Government of Soviet Russia any technical or economic assistance which is in our power and which is likely to be of service to them." Following is the full text of Mr. Churchill's broadcast: I have taken occasion to speak to you to-night because we have reached one of the climacterics of the war. In the first of these intense turning-points a year ago France fell prostrate under the German hammer, and we had to face the storm alone.

The second was when the Royal Air Force beat the Hun raiders out of the daylight air and thus warded on tne invasion of our island while we were still ill-armed and ill-prepared. The third turning-point was when the President and Congress of tne united states passed tne Lease and Lend Enactment devoting nearly two thousand million sterling of the wealth of the New World to helo us defend our liberties and their own. These were the three climacterics. The fourth is now unoh us. At four o'clock this morning Hitler attacked ana invaaea Kussia.

All his usual formalities of -perfidy were observed with scrupulous technique. A non-aggression treaty had been solemnly signed and was in force between the two countries. No complaint has been made by Germany of its non-fulfilment. Under its cloak of false confidence the German armies grew up in immense strength along a line which stretched from the White Sea to the Black Sea and their air fleets and armoured divisions slowly and methodically took up their stations. Then suddenly, without declaration of war.

without even an ultimatum, the German bombs rained down from the sky upon the Russian cities, German troops violated the Russian frontiers, and an hour later the German Amhac sador, who during the night before was lavishing his assurances of friendship umu vi ainance upon me iiussians, called upon the Russian Foreign Minister to tell him that a state of war existed between Germany and Russia. Thus was repeated on a far larger scale the same kind of outrage against every form of signed contract and international faith which we have witnessed in Norway, in Denmark, in Holland, in Belgium, and which Hitler's accomplice and jackal Mussolini so faithfully imitated in the case of Greece. "I WARNED STALIN" All this was no surprise to me. In fact I gave clear and precise warning to Stalin of what was coming. I gave him warning as 1 have given warnings to others before.

I can only hope that these warnings did not fall unheeded. All we know at present is that the Russian people are defending their native soil and that their leaders have called upon them to resist to the utmost. Hitler is a monster, wickedness insatiable in his lust for blood and plunder. Not content with having all Europe under his heel or else terrorised into various forms of abject submission, he must now carry his work of butchery and desolation among the vast multitudes of Russia and Asia. BLOOD AND OIL The terrible military machine which we and the rest of the civilised world so foolishly, so supinely, so insensately allowed the Nazi gangster to build up year bv year from almost nothing this machine cannot stand idle unless it rust and fall to pieces.

It must be in continual motion, grinding up human lives ard tramnline down the homes of hundreds of millions of men. Moreover it mus be fed not only with flesh but I with oiL So now this bloodthirsty guttersnioe must launch his mechanised armies upon new fields of slaughter, pillage, and devastation. The poor Russian peasants, workmen, and soldiers, he must steal from them their daily bread, he must devour their harvest, and he must rob them of the oil which drives their ploughs ird thus produce a famine without example in human history. Even the carnage and ruin which his victory, should he gain it and. he has not gained it yet will bring upon the Russian people will itself be only a stepping-stone to attempt to plunge 400.000,000 or 900.000.000 who live in China and the 350,000.000 who live in India into that bottomless pit of human degradation over which the diabolic emblem of the Swastika flaunts itself.

It is not too mucn to say nere xnis summer evening tha the lives and hap- piness of a thousand million additional human Denies are now rnenacea wim brutal Nazi violence. That is enough to make us hold our breaths, but presently I shall show you something else that lies behind and something that touches very nearU the life of Britain and of the United States. COMMUNISM The Nazi regime is indistinguishable from the worst features of Communism. It is devoid all theme and principle except appetite and racial domination. It excels all forms of human wickedness in the efficiency ot its cruelty and ferocious aggression.

No one has been a more consistent opponent of Communism than I have been for the last twenty-five years. I will unsay no word that I have spoken about it But all this fades away before the spectacle that is now unfolding The past with its crimes, its follies, and its tragedies flashes away. I see the Russian soldiers standing on the threshold of their native land, guarding the fields which their fathers had tilled from time immemorial, and I see them guarding their homes where mothers and wives pray ah, yes, for there are times when all pray for the safety of their lovecVones. for the return of the breadwinner, of their protector. I see the ten thousand villages of Russia where the means of existence was wrung so hardly from the soil, but where there are still primordial human joys, where maidens laugh and children play.

I see advancing upon all this in hideous onslaught the Nazi war machine with its clanking, heel-clicking, dandified Prussian officers, its crarty expert agents fresh from the cowing and tying down of a dozen countries- I see also the dull, drilled, docile, brutish masses of the Hun soldiery plodding on like a swarm of crawling locusts. I see the German bombers and fighters in the sky, still smarting from many a British whipping, going where they hope to find a safer and, they believe, an easier prey. R.A.F. fighter pilots yesterday afternoon achieved one of the most brilliant victories of the war. In another sweep in force the Channel and Northern France they shot down 29 Me.

109's. A Blenheim, one of the small force of accompanying bombers, completed the destruction of another Nazi fighter. Our own losses were two fighters the pilot of one of them is safe. This remarkable success came within twenty-four hours of the destruction of 28 Me. 109s 26 of them in two sweeps across the Channel and two by lone patrol off the East Coast.

Many of the 58 Nazi fighters shot down this weekend were of the new Me. 109 type. In seven days the enemy has lost 98 machines in daylight; R.A.F. losses in these operations have been 23 fighters and two bombers, four of our pilots being safe. Most of the Fighter Command pilots who took part In yesterday's operations spoke on their return of the lack of spirit shown bv the German pilots.

Thj squadrons which acted as escorts to the bombers on their way to the target anJ back saw 50 Messerschmitts as they were returning to the coast. "They outnumbered us, but did not attempt anything in the way of a concerted attack," said a squadron leader. Two squadrons each accounted for six enemy aircraft. One of them was a famous Polish squadron which distinguished itself in the Battle of Britain last year. Most of the German aircraft yesterday were shot down over enemy territory, but several were encountered over the Channel on their return journey.

The Air Ministry issued the following communiques Fighters of the RA.F. were again over the Channel and Northern France in strength this afternoon. Blenheim aircraft of the Bomber Command, which accompanied them, bombed the marshalling yard at Hazebrouck, which handles the traffic to the Channel ports. Many German fighters were encountered and heavy losses were inflicted on them. Our fighters destroyed 27 of the enemy.

A number of others were severely damaged by our fighters and by our bombers. One of our aircraft a fighter is missing. Later. Later reports show that thirty enemy fighters were destroyed in yesterday afternoon's operations over the Channel and Northern France Twenty-nine of them were shot down by our fighters, and one. after being hit by our fighters, was brought down by a Blenheim bomber.

Our losses were two fighters, the pilot of one of them being sale. SATURDAY'S SUCCESS Saturday's successes were scored at the ratio of about six to one, for we lost only five 'planes four fighters and a bomber. Two of the fighter pilots were saved. A squadron leader with the highest score among Fighter Command's pilots in this country shot down two Me. 109's off the East Coast He also damaged another.

The British pilot flew his badly damaged Hurricane back some thirty miles with no throttle. When he was within three miles of the English coast his engine seized and he baled out. As soon as he entered the water he released the new-type rubber dinghy incorporated in the latest parachutes. He was picked up by a barge and transferred to a sea rescue launch. He is loud in his praises of the new dinghy.

An Air Ministry communique on Saturday night said Twenty-six enemy fighters were destroyed in to-day's offensive operations. In addition, one of our fighter pilots on patrol off the East Coast this evening shot down two enemy fighters. This pi'ot subsequently had to descend by parachute but is safe. Twenty-eight enemy aircraft have therefore been destroyed during the day for the loss of five of our aircraft (one bomber and four fighters), the pilots of two of our fighters being safe. The Germans in their communique on the day's battles claimed in brought down 26 British machines.

AIR MINISTER'S CONGRATULATIONS The Secretary for Air. Sir Archibald Sinclair, has sent the following message to the Air Officer Commanding in Chief Fighter Command. Air Marshal W. S. Douglas Congratulations on the striking success of your squadrons in the recent fighting over France.

It shows not only that they retain their ascendancy over the German Air Force but that they can overcome all the disadvantazes of flshtine over the enemy's fortified territory and air bases and still inflict on him severe defeats. May good fortune attend you and your squaorons in maxing ine most or mis iresh advantage which your skill and hard fighting has won. The following signal was sfnt last night by the bomber grouD to the fighters All Blenheim pilots wish to express appreciation of the excellent support provided by the fighter escort." DUSSELDORF AND COLOGNE British bombers during Saturday' night again attacked industrial targets4 in Western Germany. An Air Ministry communique yesterday said The sustained offensive of the Royal Air Force against Germany's heavy industries was continued last night by strong forces of Bomber Command aircraft attacking objectives at Cologne and Dusseldorf. Attacks by lighter forces of Bomber Command were made on the docks at Dunkirk and Boulogne.

One of our aircraft is missing from these operations. Aircraft of Fighter Command carried out offensive patrols over enemy aerodromes in Northern France during the night These operations followed a heavy attack on Kiel on Friday night. During Friday an enemy patrol vessel was bombed and destroyed off Den Helder (Holland). NAZIS LOSE FOUR NIGHT RAIDERS An Air. Ministry and Ministry of Home Security communique yesterday morning said Last Saturday right the enemy were more active over this country than on recent nights.

There was a sharp attack on one town in the South of England, where casualties were caused and some damage was done Elsewhere bombs were dropped in the South and Southeast of England and in Scotland. These caused some damage and a small number of The destruction of tour of the raiders was announced later in the day. Against Her Wish" Washington Envoy that a Russian 'plane has bombed Fort Alsakar, in the Aaland Islands, doing slight damage, and attempted to bomb two Finnish coast defence ships. Large numbers of Soviet 'planes have flown over the frontier forty miles north of Viborg. THE LAND FIGHTING The only specific German claim in the land fighting is that their troops have crossed the River Bug, which forms part of the partition boundary in Poland, establishing a bridgehead in Russian territory.

Finnish troops are said to have gone into action by the side of the Germans at the northern end of the battle front. The attack from East Prussia was undertaken without artillery preparation to give the Russians a surprise, says the German News Agency. Heavy machine-guns and other heavy infantry weapons started the attack at 3 5 a.m.. pioneers prevented the Russians from destroying important bridges, and then the infantry pressed forward through the Russian front. According to a Bucharest telegram to Rome Rumanian troops have crossed the River Pruth into Bessarabia, the territory ceded to Russia in July, and have occupied the town of Bolgrad, near the frontier.

German mechanised forces are stated to have invaded Bukovina, the other Rumanian province lost to the Soviet. It is claimed in Bucharest that three Russian 'planes were shot down on the outskirts of Galatz yesterday. NAZIS CLAIM SOVIET SHIP German E-boats sank a Soviet ship and a fishing-boat in Russian waters early yesterday, according to the German News Agency. Press Association, British United Press, and Exchange Telegraph. THEIR RESOLVE Western Russia, the Crimea, and the Far North.

Moscow appears to have heard the news calmly. A total black-out has been ordered, air-raid shelters are to be made ready for use. and wooden buildings, which form a considerable part of the capital, are being removed. Moscow is in a state of complete military preparedness," the Moscow radio said yesterday afternoon. Volunteers are flocking to the military headquarters seeking to be enrolled in the Red Army." For the first time yesterday the Moscow radio broadcast the text of President Roosevelt's Message to Congress on the sinking of the Robin Moor.

Greater prominence than usual was given to British war news, with particular emphasis on British bombing of Germany. British United Press and Exchange. NAZI ESTIMATE OF SOVIET FORCES The German Foreign Office stated last night that the Russians have an estimated force of 650,000 men in the region of the Baltic States and that concentrations on the Western frontier number 118 out ot 170 Soviet rifle divisions, 20 out of 33J cavalry divisions, and 40 out of 46 motorised and tank brigades. At Soviet aerodromes north of the Pripet Marshes some aircraft were assembled, the statement added. Press Association.

French soldier. Speaking as a Frenchman (he added) the battles in Syria, lamentable as they are, provide another proof of the courage or my countrymen, wnatever cause they serve. I am sure that some day all these men will fight together to rid France of the invader. French resistance is continuing outside Damascus, tne Vichv communique also says. ADVANCE ON PALMYRA British motorised units from Iraq are reported from Beirut to be advancing on Palmyra, which is astride the Mosul- Tripoli oil pipeline, besides being a mili tary and air centre.

It is stated in Vichy that British naval units are un interruptedly bombarding the coast between Sidon and Beirut. They are probably preparing for an offensive by Australian troops," it is added. "The. firing is particuljrly heavy in the Dam jr region behind the advanced lines. Other official war reports, including one on Allied successes in Abyssinia, are on page two, JIBUTI WARNED Join Free French or Disavow Axis General Wavell, the Allied Commander-in-Chief in the Middle East, has told the Governor of Jibuti, French Somaliland.

that he must either join the Free French forces immediately or openly dissociate himself from the oro- Axis policy which has been evident in Syria. In the event of a refusal General Wavell is willing to evacuate women and children from Jibuti and meanwhile to supply them with milk and essential goods. Vichy and Jibuti protests on page 2 oflnKara wwSoviet 1939. dovut frontiers. vj Bsalbekl nip Jk.

Jjjpff JaaJMoo ajo gg RAILWAYS eHfftfr--Jfc-i II THE RUSSO-GERMAN FRONT German-Russian conflict has Ivtjun bombing raids on both Tc German High Command com-munuiuc issued yesterday said Ea-ly tn-da' fighting broke out on the border. An attempt by ott.v to fly over East Prussia was iy.i with heavy losses. German shot down numerous Red t'v 'lOiTS Mr. Molotoff in his broadcast M.ii that the towns of Kieff and in the Ukraine, the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, and Kaunas, capital of Lithuania, had been over two hundred people be.ru; killed and wounded. The German News Agency claimed 't night that seven out of nine Sowet bombers had been shot down East Prussia and 33 out of 35 German-occupied Poland and t'ui large numbers of aircraft had bee i destroyed on the ground in 'a.

ds on Soviet bases in the Baltic iu aruj elsewhere. Troops and military targets had also been "vtievi throughout the day, it was German radio gave much general a.t.ption of German raids, but detail of where they had been except in claiming the destruc-' i tiO "olanes on the ground on i-i side of the River Bug near and 30 at Windau, the bae at Latvia. Most of the icports did their best to the strength and quality of Kassian opposition. tinish communique broadcast -'nt said Soviet aircraft flew over territory this morning. Points well as ships off the coast were Bombs were dropped and fires i in some places.

Finnish A.A. tvned fire. F.nnish Legation in Washing- eceived word from Helsinki A RUSSIANS VOICE -'Vrroff's announcement was the -lMi-the Russians had of the By five o'clock in the a recorded version of the v.d been broadcast six times to over the country, where r.s were passed declaring the readiness to fight. stories, towns, and villages," Moscow radio, "the citizens of Kussia have expressed their for the cowardly and attack and their willingness to the last until the enemy is and 'frai mobilisation of men aged 23 ss oeen proclaimed in fourteen commands, which cover virtu- t-- whole of European Russia and eerier parts of the country, aw has been proclaimed in REPORTED REVOLT IN ESTONIA Stockholm, June 22. M7, reachin2 Stockholm from that a revolt has broken Estonia- The Red Army is rc-4-j': successfully fighting the Wo" t0 ftave seized hk Tallinn Harbour, from tne Cjtv are 511118 Russians in rom, the direction of UanS lo r-(mTtThe Swedish a- Gotland.

British United Press. MILES uwk Russian Frontiepsy 1914. Present Berlin Kg W. 6 a tl I Moscow SWaAaJ0 lllilifcSB divided. In spite of.

latent Russo-philism, the German anti-Communist DroDaeanda will work. Hungary has been waiting for this development for long, and in Rumania ueneral Antonescu has played a big part in it. In Czecho-Slovakia the majority of the people undoubtedly hope for a Russian victory. In spite of disappointments with Soviet Russian policy, most Czechs have not altogether lost their faith in Russia. The attitude of the Poles is difficult to assess accurately.

It can be assumed that the Poles in the homeland, fighting underground against the German Terror, have much less hatred for the Russians, in spite of the part the Soviet played in 1939, than for the Germans. The Baltic States, like the Finns, are probably hoping for a German victory. MR. SHAWS COMMENT The news is too good to be true. It is beyond anything we could have hoped for," said Mr.

Bernard Shaw last night, Only yesterday we and America were faced with the tremendous job of smashing Hitler with Russia looking on smiling To-dav. owine to the incon ceivable folly of Hitler, we have nothing to do but sit and smile while Stalin smashes Hitter. Now you will see what will happen. Germany has not got a dog's chance. Either Hitler is-a greater fool than I took him for or he has gone completely mad.

Why people seemed to tbinK Hitler couia ueat riussia i can imagine." Hitler's and Molo toffs statements on the naa paaJ.