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THE CHINA MAIL, MAY 11, 1939
DEMOCRACIES CONFIDENT
OF THEIR SUPERIORITY
STREET HIS GOLF COURSE
LONDON, APRIL 26. MR. RICHARD SUTTON, THE STOCKBROKER, PUT A GOLF BALL DOWN IN THE STREET ON
THE SOUTH SIDE OF TOWER
BRIDGE.
He picked it up outside White's
Club, St. James's-street.
All this happened on Sunday. Mr. Toby Milbanke, wagered his friend Mr. Sutton that he could not "play
"Gamelin Plan" For Decisive
Military Blow
The British and French general staffs are confident that if war with the dictator states comes, the margin of superiority by land, sea and in the air is now in their favour and growing more favourable daily.
The five major powers Britain, France, Ger- the course" in under 2,000 strokes. many, Italy and Russia, have among them more than 33,000,000 men either under arms or in reserve the greatest potential armies ever ready for action in history.
Five pounds, a set of golf clubs and a bag were the stakes.
Mr. Sutton did not need more than 142 strokes. When he put down his ball a boy who was standing by made himself caddy and course marshal.
Russia has 18,000,000 trained reserves and men in active service; France has 6,250,000, Italy people from interfering with the 6,300,000, Germany 2,200,000 and Britain 550,000.
He ran ahead and kept curious
ball as it went rolling along the street.
James's-street.
Playing with a putter only and never hitting the ball more than 25 crossed the yards, Mrs. Sutton river by Southwark Bridge, and had it no difficulty until he
Then he found the ball rolled backward after each stroke. At last found a lodgement and the came to St. course was finished.
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It's raining sunbeams.
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SOUTH AFRICA'S BEST FRIEND
SPEAKING IN THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY, GEN. HERTZOG, THE PRIME MINISTER, REFER- RED TO BRITAIN AS SOUTH
AFRICA'S GREATEST FRIEND. HE SAID:
"Thanks to the attitude of that friend ever since the Anglo-Boer war, and after, when the Republics were first handed back, and later when the whole of South
Africa
was given to the people, South Africa possesses the status she en- joys to-day.
"That country is to-day our great friend, and I shall be the last to do breaking that
anything towards friendship."
Gen. Hertzog said he would not be so foolish as to say that South Allied with the democracies and Africa would remain outside any the dictators are 8,000,000 seasoned war. South Africa could not sit troops of secondary powers, which back in neutrality without refer- means that if war comes-states-ence to circumstances. men insist it is still no certainty- 41,000,000 men will be available for action.
Europe is speculating on where a war will be fought if it does come and how the ideological blocs will line up
at the start. Eventually, there seems little doubt that nearly all the nations would be forced in. In event of a conflict, military experts believe the main theatres of war would be the Mediterranean, North Africa and possibly northern Italy. The French Maginot and German Siegfried lines are so strong that possibly neither country would risk sacrificing a million men
in
and
Earlier Gen. Hertzog rejected a Nationalist request for a debate on foreign affairs in the House of Assembly.
Gen. Hartzog said that the Union's policy was that of Locarno, a policy which had been approved
by the Government of which Dr. Malan, the leader of the Nationalist party, was a member at the time.
"This
Britain policy was that could enter into any treaty or lay down any policy concerning Europe or any country which was not again- st the Union's interests," he said.
an attempt to break through tic from the mainland ports of Ca- there. France might try to penet-diz, Vigo and Corunna as well as rate northern Italy through the Alps from Spanish Morocco and the strike Germany through the Canary Islands. To offset that, the at the Brenner Pass and Germany might French may be expected
outset of war to occupy the Balearic attempt the same thing in reverse. A major feature of the war would Islands as a guarantee of Mediter-
ranean communications. be action at sea and in the air.
NO DIRECT BLOWS Experts doubt that there will be any attempt by the major powers to strike direct blows. That ex- the plained the anxiety among three smaller powers which have the geographic misfortune of being na tural corridors used for centuries by invaders Switzerland, Holland and Belgium.
It is no state secret that the famous "Gamelin plan" exists and has existed since the Munich crisis last September, for the French penetration of Italy.
Under it, the French would use the Piedmont and Lombardy plains to strike down the Po valley to reach Germany through the Bren- ner Pass into Austria, thus turning the Siegfried line without violating Proof of the determination of the Switzerland by taking advantage of smaller powers to maintain their the common German-Italian frontler neutrality and defend their fron-created by anschluss. tiers is furnished by the Dutch
Under that plan, Italy is to be threat to cut their dikes and flood be knocked out completely as rapid- one-third of the lowlands, the Ru-ly as possible. The ultimate aim is manian menace of setting fire to to beat her into submission on land their oilwells to prevent them from and by air while the French fleet, falling into German hands, and the backed by the British Mediter- Swiss readiness to explode mines ranean fleet tries to sink the Italian planted along the frontiers and fleet. To do that they must over- blow the Alpine cliffs into the val- come the menace of Italy's: 120`sub- leys to block invaders.
marines and 2,000 bombers, With the frontiers so well de-based that they need fly only a few fended to the east and southeast, miles to fight foreign ships at sea. the French hope to avoid the de- The French and British believe struction of 1914 but the wide open that by mid-summer they will have Pyrenees Spanish frontier has sud- overcome the present serial super- denly become a serious menace to iority of the dictator states and for- French security. It becomes in-ged ahead. creasingly evident that Gen. Fran- The stategy on the German-Italy cisco Franco will be closely allied side probably would be to put the -morally if not military-with the "Gamelin plan" into reverse, While two dictators who helped him win Italian submarines and planes tried the civil war,
to wipe out the French and British surface fleet in the Mediterranean in order to grab Suez and Gibraltar, the German army would be pouring through the Brenner Pass and us- ing the Lombardy plains to reach
the right flank: 1373.
BRENNER PASS IS KEY Italy has not attempted to hide the fact that if the rival blocs olash, Franco will be asked to pro- val bases for, the મેવાસા