Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1941-07-04
Russia's Enrty Into
War Is Boon To
England, U. S.
christian Science Monitor)

christian Science Monitor)
British and American satisfac
ton in the Nazi invazion of Rus
STA must be questioned. For
Christians any extension of war 9
cruelty cannot in itself be q cause
of rejoicing. Only the hope that
ultimate peace and Justice will
come quickly through this add.
tion to the forces opposing the
prime warmaker and oppressor-
the Nazi regime justify sat
isfaction that the blitz has turned
East. Only quick an decisive &C
tioncan realize that hope. Only by
making the most of this unexpec-
ted help can Britain and Ameri-
ca shorten the war.
1t is not even safe to assume
that the Nazis' Moral idiocy is
Leading them into a blunder.
True, Adolf Hitler always has
tried to avoid = two.front war.
But since the fall of France the
western front has existed only
in the air and on the water. The
Hitler strategy today is to knock
out Russia-always potential
enemy in the east-before the
United States can give Britain
the machines to revive an active
front in the west. Whether he
succeeds depends on how long
Russia fights. how soon British
American power takes the often
sive.
In Britain and America this is
notime for complacency. butrath-
erfor redoubled effort.
This is not safety; it is oppor.
tunity to shorten the war which
will be hard to find again should
a quick conquest of Soviet oil and
wheat give the Nazi the chief
necessities for a long struggle.
1t is the kind of opportunity
which can make every plane, gun
and tank worth ten times now
what it may be worth later. Ii
is an opportunity which Britain
and America should seize.
The Hazi system is primarily
military. Its successes have fol-
lowed a military pattern; over
whelming one enemy at time.
Meanwhile others muse be i'm
modified.
Today the hope that is held in
Berlin counts on British and
American opinion being confused
by the Nazi claim of being a bull
war * against Bolshevism. t
counts on the repugnance of free
men for Stalinism to immobilize
activ re assistance to Russia. 1t
counts on the isolationist cry,
Now Britain is SAFE" to put
America to sleep.
But that plea from those who
said there would be no war and
have never wanted to aid Britain
can carry little weight against
this latest illustration of what
happens to appeasers-or isolation
list. Or call them merely neutrals
if it sound better; the Russians
can testify the name doesn't mat
ter. Nor does it seem possible
that at this late date many Ameri.
cans can be made to believe that
Communism threatens them more
actively than Naizism and to look
to Hitler for rescue from Stain.
Of course totalitaria nism in
Russia is still totalitarianism. The
Communists have not b m e
democrats, nor is Stain any less
a despot because he is fighting
another despot. Nor are the
Firms, whom we cheered in 1888
any the less fine folk because they
are still against Moscow.
But Americans know who start.
ed the present cycle of aggression
tnatM),c)H hal oeen quiescent
until Naziism went on the war.
path and that the Russian drives
into Baltic areas and Bessarabia
were to provide buffers against
the kind OF attack now directed
from Berlin at Lenningrad and
Baku. Americans K now the
Soviet lacked either the resource
or the strategic position to make
such a bid as the Nazi are max.
ing for " orld domination.
The Nazi tried by talking about
pluto democracies' to keep
somewhere near the Communist
party line. but they only compli
ated the acrobatics of Mussolini
and Petain. Their efforts to pro.
duce a Fascist revolution in Eu.
rope were not persuasive and
their hold in occupied countries
rest ) on puppet Quislings and
Darlans who have to be held up
with bayonets. Az bulwarks
against Bolshevism they may