NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE twenty-fifth anniversary of the foundation of the Red Army 1 has occurred during a period of swift successive triumphs which have aroused the admiration of the world. Founded in a period of revolution when Russia was powerless to stand up against the Germans, it has grown from a small extemporised force of citizen soldiers till it has become the powerful military machine which it is today—though still in its essentials a citizen army. No one now can question that it has qualities derived from a passionate belief in a cause which it shares with the Russian nation as a whole. In addition to that, it is an army which has willingly submitted to an exacting discipline. But these qualities would not have been enough if the Russian factories behind them, reinforced by the factories and sea transport of the Allies, had not provided them with an abundance of military equipment. And over all there has been leadership, leadership of a very high order, which has known how to plan far. ahead, and to develop the plan in masterly manoeuvres on many fields of battle. Premier Stalin himself has been the supreme controller in the High Command. The city of Stalingrad has become an historic symbol of the Red Army's en- durance and capacity for victory, and the appropriate tribute of admiration from this country is the King's Sword of Honour for the city which stood the ordeal so long. Mr. Eden, in praising Russian valour at the Albert Hall celebration, was right to remind our ally of the achievements of our own Navy and Merchant Marine, and to recall that if Russia at this moment is fighting alone on the European Continent, we, too, stood alone against the enemy during the year following Dunkirk. The determination of the British High Command today is not merely to fight the Germans in Tunisia and everywhere at sea, but to bring yet more direct help to the Red Army by operations on the European mainland.
