Evening star., 1941-05-05
Resist Now and Strike
Later, Is Victory
Plan Of British
Vision Which Sustoins
Them Has No Reody-Mude
Blueprint for Triumph
BY JOHN BIRD,


LONDON, May 5 N.A.NA).-
What is the version of victory which
sustains the British people as they
fight their defensive rearguard ac-
ton in this dark hour?
After talking to high and low
alike-to statesmen. editors, men in
pubs, women in shelters-here is the
picture presented to a visiting Cana
dian in London:
There is no ready-made blueprint
for victory, no Hitlerian timetable
and no disclosable grand strategy
beyond utter resistance until the
moment comes to strike and the
other fellow is ready to cave in.
At the moment, defense is all. All
intelligent eyes are turned on the
battle of the Atlantic, the battle
of the Northwest Passage, and the
Western ports. There the danger is
most acute. This means conveys and
Britain is looking increasingly to the
United States for naval and ship
ping aid.
How They Feel.
Eight weeks ago when I was in
Washington, Prime Minister Win.
ston Churchill's Sunday speech would
have been two jumps ahead of the
game, but the confidence felt here
in the flooding tide of American
opinion more than justifies the hope
of increasing American participa-
ton. Further American mercantile
marine and na,'al aid is clearly i'm
perative Immediately.
Point two is the invasion-con-
SciouSnesS of Britain right now,
London papers still feature invasion
the blackout schedules. Some of
the cooler heads say Hitler will in
wade only under two circumstances
firstly as coup de grace if the
battle of the Atlantic were going
we'll for the NaZis and Britain were
being bled white for supplies; sec
ondly, as a desperate throw of the
dice if Germany's difficulties de-
Velop In Europe.
Point three is that Greece, Libya
and Suez itself are nothing COM
pared with the battle of the North
west Passage and Britain. Tank
production in Britain, Canada and
the United States eventually will
turn the tide in Africa even if Suez
is lost temporarily.
Battle of Steel.
The editor of a great London
newspaper urged me today to tell
Canada this is battle of steel,
steel and more steel. That means
tanks and such. British retreats
have come from lack of steel. Tell
Canadians of their part in the battle
of production. 1t would be useless
for an unarmed man to tackle a
tank. 1t would be idle for the Home
Guard to resist invasion with rifles
against tanks. Britain had insuffi-
cient tanks for Libya and Greece
simultaneously and therefore had
to retreat in both countries. Britain
cannot yet pour tanks southwark
and eastward and still maintain
maximum vigilance and prepared
ness at home"
Fourth point and only fourth is
airplanes. Many foresee the turning
point of the war when the British.
plus United States production. gives
Britain supremacy of the air, crack
ing NaZi morale. Some of the more
cautious declare the turning point
will come wnen the Royal Air Force
has command of the air over Ger
many in daylight.
London is supremely confident the
civilian population can take it even
through another blitz winter. Re-
ports are widely circulated here that
the people of Berlin heartily dislike
being bombed, which sounds sensible
since nobody with wits likes being
bombed. 1t is popularity believed the
Nazis have so little relish for their
own medicine that they bomb Lon
don at present only in so-called
"reprisal" for Berlin bombings. This
gives the initiative to the British.
Little Logic, Much Courage.
The vision of victory arises with
the thought that Britain herself is
unbeatable and that the Nazis are
spread so thinly over enslaved Eu-
rope that when one crack appears
then cracks will appear everywhere.
Then Britain will sally forth, though
it is unpredictable yet whether by
naval. landing or aerial raids to