Evening star., 1939-12-16


in clearing the seas will hasten the
day when peace negotiations may be
begun.
The supremacy of the British fleet
has been closely interviewer with the
effectiveness of the blockade upon
Germany Press dispatches from
Berlin and broadcasts indicate
clearly that the German people are
being led to believe that British sea
power is being seriously challenged
and that hence any hardships un-
dergone in Germany may eventually
be vindicated by triumph over
British shipping.
The huge supply of British ton
mage, against which the German
submarines have to date made re-
latively negligible dent compared
to the last war, makes improbable
any hopes of success in starving the
British Isles. Likewise the remark
ably good defensive work Of the
British Air Forces shows that air
attacks are by no means as danger
Gus to the allies as has hitherto been
believed or as the German people
have been led to think.
Complete Protection Impossible.
The British naval strategy has
necessarily been strained to the
utmost in the first few weeks of
the war, with so many thousands
of square miles to patrol and with
the opportunities for German sub
marines and floating mines to do a
sniping job against which no navy
could probably protect itself COM
pletely.
What the operations in the Allan
airplane can be as an instrument Of
reconnaissance in connection with
feet, and undoubtedly the British
warships equipped with airplanes
have done scouting to locate the
pocket battleships, and are in posi-
ton to find the hiding places of
German raiders.
The time is not far distant now
when German commerce raiders will
be cleared from the South Atlantic
either in proximity to the African
or South American coasts and this,
too, had to be done in the last war
before the British could afford to
detach some of the vessels they had
in outlying stations and bring them
back to the European patrol.
AS evidence accumulates that the
British are to remain in control of
the seas, the moral effect on the
German people of another prolonged
battle with economic starvation will
be noticeable in renewal of dis
cussion of peace There is always
the possibility that the British them
selves as they get the upper hand
in the sea war will reopen the peace
negotiations. for they would not
then be in the position of petition
ing for peace under conditions ad-
verse to their own prestige which
would have been the case in the last
few weeks had they entertained the
peace proposals which have ema-
mated repeatedly from Berlin.
Scandinavians Blame Nazis.
The sudden aggression by the
Soviets upon Finland has strength
ened an underlying hope here that
peace is not far distant for Europe
as whole. 1t is assumed that the
conservative classes in Germany can
not be enjoying what is going on in
the Baltic, any more than are the
British or the Scandinavians. Here
tofore Scandinavian friendship has
been valuable to Germany in the
matter OF relaylng supplies from the
outer world. But with Norway and
Sweden both apprehensive that Rus
sld may sWoop down further into
the Baltic, the Germans must find
themselves i'll at ease among their
own friends in Scandinavia. For
whether the Russo-German alliance
is or is not a good thing now for
Germany, Scandinavian public opin-
ion places upon the Nazis full re-
sponsibility for initiating a partner
ship which permitted the aggression
on Finland to be consummated.
With all the neutrals of the Euro
pean world nervous about aggression
and sympathies all on one side-a
contrast to the last war-the gov
ernments of the smaller countries
are unquestlonably active in trying
to bring about peace It has been
said officially in London that peace
talk is going on in neutral quarters
all the time. These efforts no doubt
will be intensified if the British can
demonstrate their naval and air
supremacy in the next few weeks
over vast areas in the Atlantic which
have hitherto been traversed by Ger
man commerce raiders. If the Ger
man people are to be compelled to
night long struggle against an ef-
1ectlve blockade, their economic situ-
alton will compel peace, and the
British no doubt are expecting some
such move, for it is an interesting
though unexplained fact that the
British are not buying any more war
supplies than they require for cur
rent needs-their buying policies in
olcating not a long war, but an early
neace N y