The Russo-German War

The Russo-German farce of friendship, on which the curtain rose in August, 1939, with the signatures of Ribbentrop and Molotoff on a pact of mutural non-agression, came to its inevitable and tragic end early Sunday morning. The German army today marches on Russian soil. The Russian skies are hideous with the scream of German bombs.

Nothing is known and nothing can at this moment be believed as to the circumstances that brought about the break. […] The usual cause of such quarrels is the division of plunder; and it is most likely that the Russians would not give what Germany wanted of them or that Hitler would not take what Stalin offered. […] At any rate the break came and the two most detestable regimes in the world are now at grips with each other. May they do much to devour and destroy each other, and thus open the way for governments whose aims will make it possible for their peoples to live in peace with the world.

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From our point of view the news is good. The accretion of strength to the anti-Hitler camp is welcomed, be it great or small, no matter whence it comes. The appearance of every form of resistance, no matter how short the resistance may be, is good news.

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Meanwhile the Allied course is clear, as Mr. Churchill said in his prompt and memorable broadcast on Sunday afternoon. The foe is Hitler. He must be destroyed. Wherever a nation resists him, regardless of its record that nation must be helped. The scale and measure of possible British assistance to Russia is not great.

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But the considerations, important as they are, lie in the future. At the moment and in a strange, inscrutable way, we have another ally to whom we send our fervent hopes that its resistance will be strenuous, skilful, bloody and prolonged.