THE THIRD YEAR
opening of the third year of the war has rightly been made the subject of various historical retrospects in the y Press. Here it is sufficient to recall some of the perils ough which we have passed and recognise the grounds for sured optimism which now exist. Of September, 1939, e need be said. The profitable comparison is with tember, 1940; whefi Great Britain, left to face the aggressor tes alone, under new leadership to which she owed and still es far more than can be computed, was keeping the enemy bay in the skies above her cities and countryside and smashing French harbours the craft that were to bring invading cps to her shores. Our debt to the R.A•.F. for the deliver- e is immeasurable. Since then fortune has swayed this way that. The Battle of Britain was magnificently won. The ttle of the Atlantic in the early months of this year might it have been lost; that-danger still exists, but the sinkings ve been substantially reduced and the outlook remains peful. Greece and Crete were disasters, and could have been thing else, but they served their purpose in throwing-out tler's time-table, even if at the same time they involved the tender of all our gains in Libya. Since then Hitler's attack Russia has revolutionised the situation, our hold on the addle East has been' consolidated through action in Syria, aq and Iran, and . the gradual development of America's unitions-output supplies an essential constituent of victory. it there will be no victory without greater effort. Mr. RooseVelt perfectly right in saying that the moment when the enemy tows signs of discomfiture is the moment for redoubling e assault on him.- The- third year of the war_ may be e hardest yet—for civilian as well as soldier—but it may also :.the last. •
