Evening star., 1942-06-24
Five-Yeur War?

rive cor war!
In presenting the record breaking
$43, 5000, 900 900 Army supply bill to the
House, Representative Snyder, chair
man Of the subcommittee handling
the bill, told his colleagues that "the
only safe thing for the Nation is to
assume that this war is going to last
five years at least-and then hope,
pray and work to cut that period"
To these three-hope, prayer and
work-he might have added a fourth
requirement., namely that we must
fight as we have never fought before.
II the duration Of the war is to be
shortened, however, there must be
something more on our part than a
willingness to fight. Much Of the
Allied military effort to this time has
consisted, perhaps necessarily so. of
waiting for the enemy to strike and
then attempting to hold line Of de-
tense or drive him back. But there
is mounting evidence that the hour Is
rapidly approaching when we will
have to abandon this strategy Of de-
fense and carry the war to the enemy
with a smashing offensive Of our own.
This Allied offensive, together with
the form that it will take and the
time of its launching, must be the
principal theme of the discussions
now being held by Prime Minister
Churchill and President Roosevelt.
Certainly they are not concerned only
with the fall Of Tobruk and the
threat to Sevastopol, for the problem
is larger than either or both. Yet it
is not a new problem and its charac-
ter has not been substantially
changed by the events of the past
few days.
Essentially, it is problem Of space,
men and machines. 1t is true now,
as it has been from the beginning Of
the war, that we may be attacked on
one or more Of many fronts. But
even with the Army of 4,500, 900 men
that we will have year hence, we
could not afford to station them in
garrisons around the world, for that
would leave us strong at no point
and weak everywhere. Somehow, the
needs Of defense must be reconciled
with the necessity for taking the Of
fensive, and the drawing Of this line,
the determination of how much
strength is to be apportioned for the
one purpose and how much for the
other, is the crux of the problem
confronting Mr.. Roosevelt and the
British Prime Minister. 1t is for them
to strike the balance between the
defensive demands of India, China,
Australia, our own Pacific outposts
and the Middle East on the one hand,
and the imperative need Of muster
ing strength for an offensive that
will strike directly at the Axis. And
this is a decision which must be
made under the pressure of events.
for the enemy, by concentrating his
strength against the relatively thinly
held Allied lines, is registering sig
niflcant gains and is threatening
more.
In urging the immediate opening
of a second front, Maxim Litvinov,
the Russian Ambassador, told an
audience in New York Monday night:
Much depends on the rational and
timely use of resources. The foe can
not be beaten if his forces Of today,
modified and developed as they are
to the utmost, are opposed by forces
Of tomorrow" This Is only another
way of saying that the war will last
five years and perhaps great deal
longer if an overly cautious policy
leads to the downfall of Russia this
year. The alternative, it seems clear,
is to gamble on a major Allied
offensive this year, and Mr.. Churchill
and Mr.. Roosevelt will have to decide
whether we can take that risk. No
one will envy that responsibility.