NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE temporary set-back on a section of the Russian front, the standstill in Italy and the deplorable abandonment of Leros, following on the deplorable abandonment of Cos, are reminders, possibly salutary and certainly pertinent, of the hard fact that there is no question of this war wearing itself away to its close. It will have to be fought to a close, and fought hard, fought as the Russians have been fighting it for months and years. How serious is the menace the Russians themselves are having to meet at Manstein's hands is not yet fully revealed. The news that Russians are giving ground anywhere is so unfamiliar that it calls for some mental adjustment to interpret it. The obvious purpose of the German attack is to compel the Russian High Command to divert troops te the threatened sector and so relieve the pressure on the retreating German armies elsewhere. That plan has not yet succeeded, and there is every likelihood that the Russians, adopting a little of that elastic defence so popular with their enemies, will succeed in holding Manstein in the Zhitomir region and at the same time continue their victorious advances elsewhere. But this evidence of the capacity of the Germans for even a limited offensive emphasises with some urgency the need for accelerating whatever co-ordinated military action was decided on at Moscow. There has been singu- larly little disposition in this country to criticise the directors of high strategy, but quite apart from the fiasco of Leros the failure of our Middle East forces to make any move towards action in the Balkans—for which lectures to the Yugoslays by Sir Henry Maitland Wilson are not a satisfying substitute—is causing growing perplexity and uneasiness. What is manifestly needed in the present state of Germany's morale and military situation is an accumulation of co- ordinated blows. Both accumulation and co-ordination are still very Much to seek. Meanwhile the population at home has its duties. It Is not encouraging to learn that we are getting fewer aeroplanes because of strikes and using too much fuel because of extravagance.
