Aid on the Wharves

. . . A reason for the temporary reverses our armies have suffered, Stalin said, is our shortage of tanks and, more particularly, aircraft. . . . Modern war is a war of motors. The war will be won by him who will have an overwhelming superiority in the output of motors. If the production of motors in the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union is combined, then we will acquire at least a threefold superiority over that output of the Germans. . . .

By last week the great combine had begun to function. Britain had shipped tanks and planes, the U.S. had pulled the string on Lend-Lease. But before the Russians could benefit, the aid must reach, not only Russia, but Russia's fighting fronts.

Archangel. Sir Walter Citrine, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, who recently headed a T.U.C. delegation to Russia, said last week that he had seen Hurricanes being landed at the White Seaport of Archangel "hand over fist." But he said that ice was already forming in the harbor. The Russians have assured Britain and the U.S. that Archangel's two new icebreakers can keep this route clear. For the time being it is the best and quickest.

Iran. Eventually, unless Hitler changes the Allies' plans, the heaviest traffic may get to Russia by way of Iraq, Iran and the Caspian Sea. It was reported from Ankara last week that more than 70 ships are plying between the U.S. and the Middle East with materials for joint British-Russian defense, that they have begun to unload at the rate of a ship a day.

But aid on a wharf on the Persian Gulf is no check to Adolf Hitler. Persia's slim facilities for transportation must be improved. Rolling stock has to be brought in (mostly from India, which has a different gauge but can produce the proper gauge). Ports like Bandar Shahpur on the Persian Gulf and Bandar Shah on the Caspian have to be modernized. Weak links in the railroads connecting the Persian Gulf with Russia must be remedied. To these ends a U.S. mission under Brigadier General Russell L. Maxwell, former Administrator of Export Control, prepared last week to leave for the Middle East.

Vladivostok has been temporarily abandoned as a port of entry for U.S. goods, not only because of the danger of friction with Japan. Vladivostok, though much farther south, has more ice than Archangel. Besides, the long Trans-Siberian Railway is far too busy carrying troops to the front and machinery from it. But Vladivostok could be used in a pinch.

Adolf Hitler boasted last week that he had deprived Russia of the use of 15,000 airplanes, 22,000 tanks and 27,000 guns. The present supply lines to Russia are not, of a caliber to replace one-tenth of such losses this winter. But if the lines--particularly the Iran-Iraq lines--are not erased, Russia may gradually grow stronger rather than weaker.

A map of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics appears on the next two pages. Prepared from new source material, it shows important features missing from most available maps, for example: the rail line between Guriev and Orsk, all but completed by 1941; the railway link between the Archangel-Moscow line and the Kotlas-Kirov line, just completed. Contrary to the general impression, the 93% of the U.S.S.R. still held by the Russians is rich in natural resources, adequately machined.

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