14 NOVEMBER 1941, Page 11

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

HELPING RUSSIA

Sut,—Mr. E. Strauss is almost certainly right when, in connexion with my _review of his Soviet Russia, he suggests that the Nazi attack on Russia was caused by the " baulking of all other Nazi designs by British sea-power or more correctly British' air-power and Anglo-American sea-power." The struggle for the Caucasus is going to be even more fateful than the struggle for the Ukraine. For Hitler is trying to carry out the theory of his mentor, the Bavarian General Haushof er, whose Zeitschrift fur Geopolitik has long advo- cated the creation of a Eurasian " Heartland " on the two continents, self-supporting in all but tropical products. He realises that he cannot win the war against the sea-powers, but since the sea-powers cannot also be great land-powers, he sees his chance of digging in behind two continental land-masses and creating a stalemate.

One wonders therefore why some of our politicians and statesmen persist in making our flesh creep, predicting the invasion of this country as imminent. Is our sea- and air-power going to be less in relation to Germany's in future? The public mind in this maritime country of ours with its great naval tradition seems strangely hypnotised by land-power and always seems to yearn to become one, as if the sea and now the air combined were not our surest shield. The Communist and shop-steward agitation for the creation of a West Front shows the same muddled thinking.

Surely the best way toy- help Russia and ourselves is to try to stop Hitler's plans to realise General Haushofer's " Heartland." That means doing what we have always done before in our history, namely using our sea-power to send military expeditions abroad to support allies in the enemies' weak spots. There is our ally, Russia: there is our sea-power in the Persian Gulf and the White Sea and, if we can drive road and rail-communication across the Iranian plateau, there is the enemies' weak spot far away from his bases in Central Europe. But his "-Todt " organisation will before long eliminate his weak spots. Why, then, have we not got our " Todt" organisation to drive across Persia to the Caucasus before it is too late?—Yours, &c.,