A GOOD WEEK
A WEEK which has seen the American occupation of Iceland ti (with all that that implies in the Atlantic), the end of the campaigns in Abyssinia and—unless some eleventh-hour hitch intervenes—in Syria, the maintenance of Russia's in- domitable resistance to German invasion and the steady and marked intensification of Royal Air Force attacks on Germany assumes a place of some note in the annals of the war. The Russian campaign has first claim on attention. On the nine- teenth day of the invasion the Russian front is unbroken, and except in the White Russia sector the enemy has nowhere penetrated more than a few miles beyond the pre-1939 Russian frontier. He is running his tanks to a standstill, and all the railway communications in front of him are broad-gauge, where his own rolling-stock is useless and the Russians can be relied on to leave none of their own behind them if they have to retire further. Hitler's Blitzkrieg against Russia has definitely failed. He may succeed in his criminal aggression, but he will not succeed in the approved German way. Meanwhile, the whole situation in the Middle East has been transformed in the last month. The Iraq revolt has been crushed, fighting in Abyssinia is virtually over and Vichy, having satisfied its honour, has called an end to hostilities in Syria. That leaves General Auchinleck to concentrate on Libya, where enemy movements will be considerably restricted by the Royal Navy, as its recent destruction of an Italian cruiser and several supply ships opportunely indicates. The terms of the Syrian armistice have still to be agreed on. They should, and no doubt will, be generous. No Frenchman, with the exception of a few Lavals and Darlans, is our enemy, and the sooner the recent unhappy hostilities in Syria, the direct result of German machinations, are forgotten the better.
