NEWS OF THE WEEK
RELIABLE news from the eastern front is too scanty to admit of any very confident judgements regarding the course of the fighting so far. But after four days' fighting the Russians appear to be holding their ground as well as could reasonably be expected, having regard to the advantage which the element of surprise conferred on the Germans. Brest- Litovsk has been lost, but that fortress is in the portion of Poland annexed by Russia eighteen months ago, and no com- plete defence-line had been constructed in the newly-acquired territories in Poland or Rumania. An initial German advance there was inevitable, though in point of fact, if the Russian communiqués are to be believed, all attempts to invade the Ukraine from Rumania have been frustrated. Finland, it is clear, is to be drawn into the conflict in spite of herself. She could not prevent the Germans using her territory as a base, and in such circumstances Russia could not refrain from retaliating. Finnish bitterness against Russia after the events of 1939 is natural, but to find her lining up with the Axis Powers against Great Britain and, in effect, the United States, is completely unnatural. But Finland is the victim of pressure she cannot resist. However the general trend of the war may be going, a subject on which the German communiques are reticent, it is certain that it is involving Germany in a vast consumption of oil, both in the air and on the ground, when great mechanised detachments are in action. If she fails to replace it through the plunder of the Caucasian oilfields her position may before long be critical.
