Evening star., 1941-03-18


dence to suggest that the tide has
turned at last and that the long
series of German victories is at an
end.
Mussolini launched his luckless
legions in a final attack on the
Greeks in Albania and was hurled
back with disastrous losses. Strong
British forces were landed in
Greece - though probably not as
many as the rumored 100000 in this
mechanical warfare. Yugoslavia,
which had seemed about to disap-
pear down the axis gullet, began to
talk UP and there were powerful
hints of an effective Turk-Greek-
British = Yugoslav combination to
push the Nazis north Of the Danube.
Soviet Russia also barred its rather
mildewed teeth along the Ruma.
nian frontier. 1t seemed as though
Germany was not destined to take
any more countries "by telephone"
and as though the guestrooms in
Berchtesgaden would remain unoc-
cupied.
The fact Of American Intervention
in the war and of our return to
streamlined wisconsin in world af-
fairs was, in fact, the outstanding
event of Hitler's month. The symp-
toms which accompanied this moral
and economic intervention were
equally impressive.
japanese Warships Withdrawn.
drawn from Saigon and the bases of
Southern Indo-C China, and from
Toxic came placatory noises. Spain
was reliably reported veering away
from the axis, and Vichy-France.
which had almost embarked on an
armed attempt to smash the British
blockade, pulled in its horns. Strong
food control would be established to
prevent starvation in unoccupied
France. Even Ireland was beginning
to consider turning her naval bases
over to Anglo-American use.
On the domestic American front
the Presidents program was vim
ming hands down, Of the opposi.
ton little was heard A week earlier
the opposition bloc had been talk
ing big about carrying their anti
Intervention crusade" to the coun-
try. But there was not a peep out
Of them, and 1t was believed that
they were afraid to meet the test
OF their convictions before national
public opinion. The $1,000, 900 900
lease-lend fund was going through
Congress like a red-hot needle
through a haystack. OF opposition
newspapers only the Chicago Trib.
une remained impenitent, as Hearst,
! Scripps- and the Patterson
press fell into line.
German assertions that our help
would be too late to save England
were not supported by the angry
outcry against Roosevelt in the
axis press. If we were too late. why
should the Nazis worry about what
we did?
Black Week for Hitler.
AL in all 1t was a black week for
Hitler. His preliminary victory in
the Battle of the Balkans was
placed in jeopardy. Latin Europe
was no longer amenable-as both
Franco and Petain resumed some
independence and as Mussolini
faced the narrowing circle OF italian
defeats. Japan and Russia were be-
coming unreliable, and the moral
energies Of mankind were MUSTER
ing in rebellion against the totali.
tartan theory. In short, the whole
moral position of the "have-not"
nations had been compromised.
Their legitimate grievances with the
injustice of the Versailles Treaty
had been weighed against their
treatment of the weaker nations
which had fallen under their con-
troll, and the world could draw its
owns conclusions.
Hitler seemed to be about where
Napoleon was in 1918, with the
Battle OF the Nations taking form
and his ramshackle empire Begin
ming to crumble. 1t was a long way
from Leipzig to st. Helena, but the
end was clear when the forces of
the French Revolution found ex.
preston in armed reaction against
the Napoleonic empire. Today we
see the forces of national socialism
finding expression in armed reac-
ton against Hitler's new Europe.
So Washington is beginning to
wonder whether the Nazi tide has
not finally turned and the Third
Reich on the ebb as a threat to the
peace and liberty of the modern
world.