Evening star., 1941-07-05
Two Weeks Of War
In East Fail 10
Provide Decision
London Still Pesssimistic;
Nozis Have Yet to Show
They Can Destroy Russians
BY WILLIAM II. STONEMAN,
Foreign Correspondent of The Star and
Cb;ra,o noilv Neue

by WILLIAM II. S1oNENlAN, =
Foreign Correspondent of The Star and
Chicago Daily News.
LONDON, July 5.-Two weeks of
the Russian German war, with vio-
lent engagements between massive
and beautifully equipped hordes
along a line stretching 1900 miles
from the White Sea to the Black
Sea, have so far failed to prove any
thing, in Londons estimation.
The Germans have made crushing
advances through the Baltic states,
through Minsk. toward Moscow, and
through Luck, toward Kiev, but
none of these advances has yet pro-
duced anything approaching a de-
cision. If the Germans are going
to surround enough of the Red
Army to destroy its offensive power,
they still have to prove it.
On the other side of the fence,
the Russians have definitely been
on the defensive from the word "go'
and their much-vaunted power has
done nothing more than check the
Germans. If, as everybody thought
when the war began, the Germans
were planning to take a month, or
six weeks, for the decisive and shock
stage of the present camgaign, there
is nothing to prove that they will
not be able to accomplish their pur-
pose in that time.
Quality Unexpectedly High.
What the Russians have shown
has been willingness to fight and
ability to stand punishment, which
many critics of the present Russian
regime thought they lacked. 1t also
seems established that Russian mill
tary equipment, and certain types
of fighter aircraft, are of far higher
quality than civil production had
led outsiders to expect.
It now remains to be seen whether
the will to fight, and the equipment
of the Red Army and Air Force will
stand another two weeks of ceaseless
pounding as well as they have the
first two. Opinion is almost equally
divided on this question, with
tendency toward continued pes
simism.
One happy development. from the
Allied viewpoint, has been the
friendly nature of Anglo-Russian
contacts since the war began. Brit
ish staff officers, who were sent to
Russian two weeks ago have been
received with open arms and with
out the air of suspicion and secre-
tiveness which might have been ex-
pected Exchanges of information
have been thoroughgoing and the
British have been able to form
fairly adequate idea of develop
mentS in the field.
Friendly Toward Cripps.
At the same time. Vyacheslav M
Molotov, Premier Stalin's foreign
minister, has displayed an ex-
tremely friendly attitude toward
Sir Stafford Cripps, Britain's Am
bassador to Moscow, and other Brit
ish representatives, and it has been
made clear to them that the Krem-
lin regrets its former attitude, which.
it repeats, was necessitated by an
overwhelming desire to keep out
of the war.
One extremely comforting feature
of the war, to date, has been the
ability OF the Russian Railways
traditionally the sloppiest in the
world-to perform smoothly during
the early days of the conflict. They
have done this despite heavy Ger
man air raids and there is definite
hope that they may continue to do
so. This was more than even the
Kremlin could expect
tcopyright, le4l, by Chicago Daily News)