THE CHINA-MAIL, AUGUST 31, 1940
CHINA MAIL
WINDSOR HOUSE ==
KONOYE'S RECIPE
an-
Those who expected fireworks, or ani nouncement of real im- portance, in Prince Konoye's manifesto, were sharply disappointed. Wordy in length and con- tent, it said nothing that had not been said before by other Japanese states- men. Stripped of verbiage and ambiguity, Prince Konoye was telling the nation that her leaders, having failed in their am- bitions in China, had ex-| tended the scope of those ambitions, and that Prince Konoye believes he has a new recipe for suc-
cess.
It remains a fact, how- ever, that Japan is now well into the fourth year of operations in China, with no visible prospects of bringing them to a satisfactory. conclusion.
What these three years of destruction and slaughter have cost in lives, mater- ial loss, and the misery of some two or three hun- dred millions of helpless peasantry, cannot yet be even approximately com- puted: Outwardly the blow might seem to have been borne chiefly by the Chinese. But the effect in Japan of the three years' warfare, not so ap- parent but no less serious- ly crippling, is registered in the serious political an- xiety expressed by the Premier and economic} distress.
Unbowed by the pro- found afflictions which this war has brought up- on them, the Chinese have been resisting with spirit which all peoples
a
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ACHTUNG!
THE FÜHRER WILL ADDRESS YOU ON` HIS GREAT VICTORY-
ACHTUNG!
HERR GOEBBELS WIL L TELL YOU WHY WE ARE THE UNDISPUTED
MASTERS OF
(od
ACHTUNG!
R.A.F
IN THE
NEIGHBOURHOOD)
BREMEN:
R.A.F IN THE
NEIGHBOURHOOD
HAMBURG.
HERR GOERING WILLI TELL YOU OF OUR IMPREGNABLE AIR
DEFENCE
Paris On
and 32,000 muskets.
zens.
Thus as the warm
·A·F.
R·A·
IN
NEIGH
THE
PHOOD
DEUTSCHLANDSENDER.
UNFINISHED SYMPHONIES
ER- TO-MORROW
EVENING!
SOMETIME
LATER!
SOME OTHER TIME! GUTE
NACHT
Dance
Did Not This July 14
-By EMRYS JONES
1. Page 7
The Destiny
Of France
There is little doubt now that the mood of chronic pessimism which is ascribed to Marshal Petain, and which opened the igates to traitors and enemies, was characteristic of much of France.
Nor does it seem to have been confined to any one class or party in the state. Peasants, work- men, fonctionnaires, shopkeepers, business people, the army, the politicians, alike were infected with it-not all, but enough to make it a prevailing trait of pre- sent-day France.
to
or
It was the cause of defeatism, the cause of that readiness believe tales against allies against groups and persons with- the in the nation upon which German propaganda so skilfully played. If the French people are to become great again they must
By Britannicus
throw off that mood; and if they are to throw it off they must rid themselves of its causes.
Those causes lie deep, It needs an historian who is also a psy- chologist to probe them fully. But one thing at least is sure, that Marshal Petain was right. when in his moment of despair' he spoke of "too few babies" as one of the reasons for the downfall of France.
He was wrong; of course, if he was thinking merely of the numbers of the nation or of its army. A small nation may be as great, a small army as triumph- ant, as a large. Numbers alone are not decisive. Remember Fin- land.
The real effect of France's "too. few babies" has been more ob- scure and far more penetrating. The man without heirs is a man who must live for his own life. And the temptation to judge life by material standards is all the greater when there is no family to
for call
self-sacrifice. The father of a family identifies his own hopes and ambitions with those of his children, and later of his grandchildren. Thus, his fund of dynamic zeal is constant- ly refreshed, while that of the childless man runs dry.
Faith and Hope
These are generalities. They. cannot apply to 'every man in the state. Often the most vigorous and dynamic leaders are childless men, simply because they are relieved of family cares. But the generalities are endemic in a nation's health. The strong; limb cannot save the trunk that is diseased within, France; with a declining population, was a land without ambition. Her mood: was always defensive. She had no wish to build new worlds by the arts of peace.
The lesson for others is plain.
If we are to retain, in after years, our will and power to resist evil and defy slavery; we must keep our faith and hope in the future of our stock. We must go on aiming at some goût not yet achieved—more trekdóm, better cooperation, within the British Commonwealth, and in each of its lands more welfare for the common man.
Then De Launay, the governor, gave the order to fre. The mob dancing in the streets, buildings hesitated, scattered, then rallied as were
shot floodlit, fireworks they were reinforced by mutin-up into the sky, troops marched ous soldiers.
down from the Arc de Triomphe The little garrison fell back un- to the Place de la Concorde, and der the rush until they and the aeroplaries soared over the watch- governor were slaughtered.
ing crowds. Every great event has its mo- Last year the celebrations were ment of comedy.
greater than ever, for British After the battle the citizens Guardsmen, bluejackets, and
who value their freedom It is a warm, sunny morning into guard the Saint Antoine gatej tales of what went on in there current among the people of Paris must. honour and admire Paris in July. The mob pause. of Paris.
What next?
At first it was used by the King—but at least they were. right in in-
the Chiang Kai-shek's
Like a wind they have swept to entertain guests, as a treasure regarding it as symbol of through the streets of the city, and house, and then to house prison- tyranny by reason of the arbitrary spiration and his people's they have just smashed their way ers of war.
method of imprisonment. It Was the great Cardinal Thus, when the nameless man own passion for independ-into the Invalides to seize cannon
Richelieu who turned it into a shouted "To the Bastille!" on that] ence have for three years Now they are more than an an-State prison and made it the warm July morning, he voiced the denied victory to Japan in gry mob. They are armed citi-symbol of tyranny and oppres-popular feeling of the citizens of Once we turn only to defending what we have, we are doomed. They have power. So slon.
Paris bent on achieving liberty.
Until France releases herself from everything that really de-what next?
Into its dark chambers went} The revolutionaries swarmed that defensive mood, is un-nobles who resisted the King and into the courtyard, hacked away will continue. But when she re- her decay cides victory.
The man who decided known to history. He is nameless his Cardinal, conspirators, spies, at the chains that held the draw- creates ambition, and draws Meantime, the Europ-He cried, "To the Bastille!"
bridge, and as it fell the mob afresh the breath of hope, her ean war has aggravat-fortress is the symbol of tyranny. Yes, of course, the Bastille, That,
rushed across.
future glory will be assured. ed to the point of ex-Away with it! To the Bastille!
morning haustion the strain pro-turned into an unusually hot day. duced in Japan' by the the people of Paris swept forward effort to subdue China;ing that seemed cold and forbid- to the grey-stoned, towered build- for imported munitions ding even in the sunlight.
It was July 14, 1789 the day, innocent men whom the law could and aeroplanes are not
too ever since held sacred as the day not punish, and men great now available to Japan as of French freedom. Quatorze Juil and powerful to be brought before
the courts. They were not brought began their search for the instru-R.A.F. men marched with the formerly, her foreign ex-
to trial, and an order to the. King ments of torture that were sup-30,000 Frenchmen, and that night change and her reserves
or his Minister was enough to posed to exist in the dungeons. of British and French troops danced The Bastille -the word "origin-send him to the Bastille, A lettre the Bastille. At Inst their search together in the streets as they of raw materials have ally meant any fortress défended de cachet sent a mon in, and an was rewarded. They found an had done 20 years before.
no towards other lettre de cachet› brought his instrument, but
one could dwindled, and her vast by bastions-was built
From the steps of the Opera and the end of the fourteenth century release,
guess what kind of torture it was under huge arc-lights, Marlone army in China is im-
Explanations were not given.I supposed to inflict.
Dietrich announced that she would mobilised without being
Among the famous men sent to It was a printing press of an-sing the songs that made her
famous. able to enforce the vic-China" was recently over Iron Mask-almost certainly
the Bastille were The Man in the clont design!
The anniversary of the storming an
That was the Quatorze Juillet tory declared to have whelmed by the agitation in Rohan, and flugues national holiday, and the site of
Italian diplomat-Voltaire, Car
of the Bastille is kept as a that France knew. been won: For Japan ear- of military extremists. Abriot, Provost of Paris, who the prison is to-day marked by a ly peace in China is im-
The "glorious oppor-the prison.
had had additional towers built to column surmounted by a figure
of Liberty.
Just 161: yðars ago. tired and perative. Moderate. Jap-tunity" school is now
To-day, Liberty looks down to dusty horsemen rode into the anese opinion which urg- firmly in the saddle; but`
mock the people of Paris, whose towns and villages throughout freedom has been so shamelessly France crying, "The Bastille has ed, that peace can be sec-nothing has recently oc- In the time of Louis XIV, the betrayed by the men of Vichy.
fallen!"
Let us not doubt; that: this now ured only with the helpcurred but to encourage went into the Bastille every year.
Bastille which now imprisons all France' will fall too, 'and let us of "those other Powers the view. that they are The number dropped to 30 in
the eighteenth century,
In other years. Paris: on July 14 remember, that it; is our privilege which have interests in riding for a fall:
There were; of-courib, terrible celebrated riotously. There was to cause its destruction,
let.
*
✡.
"Sun King," about 40 prisoners
✡
19