Evening star., 1940-06-16
With Chins Up

| CFCl olilCC IllC INVASION OF SCanQl-
navia ten weeks ago Hitler's blitzkrieg
has been a campaign of complete
unpredictability, as we'll as of
successive victories. Prophecy about
the direction the Nazi juggernaut
would next take confounded time
and again the expert judgment of
enemy and neutral strategic author
tiles alike.
On one score there is little diff
Guilty in foreshadowing what the
Germans impending major move will
be. It's objective is the British Isles.
1t will be essayed. according to a re-
cent statement by the Berlin high
command, when we are completely
ready" With the Norwegian, Danish,
Dutch, Belgian and French Channel
coasts indisputably in his grip, it is
plainly a mere question of time
perhaps only of days or hours-until
Hitler will embark upon an adven-
ture never successfully risked since
William the Conqueror, nearly nine
hundred years ago.
That Britain is fully conscious of
the ordeal and peril which confront
her is one of the reasSuring aspects
of situation which it would be
worse than premature or defeatist
to regard as already hopeless. Even
S0 SiShao orteripo q rouorca &c +I,o
fall of Paris, close on the heels of
the colossal military disaster" in
Flanders, as Mr.. Churchill termed it,
has only steeled his peoples deter
mination, again in the Prime Min
lster's words, never to surrender"
British purpose ito go on to the end"
springs from realistic contemplation
of what defeat would bring. The
nations mind clearly is now focused,
as Mr.. Brailsford has just stated in
the New Republic, ION the narrower
aim Of survival" for, he says: I'VE
understand what betides for France
and Britain, if our defenSes should
collapse this summer. The best for
which we might hope would be some
vassal status. It is unlikely that we
should enjoy more than a precarious
shadow of government. It is
certain that we should be deprived
of all armed power" .....-
Bulwarking British confidence in
survival" is the ancient and unshat-
terable faith of the land of Drake
and Nelson in the invulnerability of
sea power. AS long as her navy is
af1oat and unbeaten, the idea of
invasion or subjugation of her island
stronghold has no place in Britain
MAS concept of the war. Nowhere
than among her people is Admiral
Mahan's theory more deeply rooted
namely, that command of the sea is
synonymous with invincibility. All
history to date, from Rome to Jut-
land, justit1es Mahan's creed Britons
will not abandon the conviction that
history is about to repeat itself.
But the profound American naval
statesman wrote The Influence of
Sea Power Upon History" in 1890,
half a century before the advent of
the dive-bomber warplane. It is
everybody's secret that Hitler's hope
of invading and conquering Britain
rests upon his belief that air power
is on the eve of demonstrating
superiority over sea power. Authori-
tative opinion differs widely on that
point. Decision as to which set of
protagonists is right will not be
much longer deferred.
Meantime, those in the outside
world whose prayers are unremit-
tingly for Allied success are COM
forted to know that Britons await
their supreme trial with chins we'll
up and with a stout defense afloat,
ashore and aloft, ready to resist with
skill and tenacity the most ferocious
threat they have ever had to meet.
British readiness to 60 "all out"
with her resources, to ameliorate
the plight of France while there is
still time, if time there be, of course
diminiShes the United Kingdoms
capacity to put up as powerful
barriers against invasion as were
originally planned. But London dis
patches disclose that the change in
policy suddenly dictated by Frances
plight is based on the hope of pur-
chasing in the United States max
imum of war sinews. The Churchill
governments decision imposes upon
this country the plain duty of speed
ing up industrial production, in order
that we may, with a minimum of
delay, make good the Presidents
pledge at Charlottesville to extend
all available material resources" to
the forces now struggling against
terrible odds to preserve democracys
existence.
Col. Theodore Roosevelt criticizes