CHINA MAIL Rose Needs Manure
"WINDSOR HOUSE
STAYING OUT
selves....
The domination of one race, one
Dr. George Glasgow, contributor | future probability, no matter how |
on foreign affairs to the "Con- deeply fortified his judgment may temporary Review," discusses by by knowledge of worldly facts. the war from the point of There are tramps, who read- no vicw of religion and Chris books, whose interpretation of There are Irrepressible
tianity. He writes:
what is at present taking place rings truer than that of many optimists and wishful THE British Foreign Secretary
pundits: as those who talk to and the Commander-in-Chief thinkers in Britain and of the British armed forces have tramps may discover for them- broadcast pronouncements which elsewhere who are confid-roughly and fairly may be de- scribed as sermons, such as would ent that Soviet Russia not disgrace a Christian pulpit. will sooner or later come Let those who point a finger of
scorn at what they may regard A Clear Transgression into the war as an enemy as this new manifestation of Bri- tish hypocrisy, suspend their of Germany and Italy. On judgment, and themselves beware lest they rashly presume to pro- the other hand, there are nounce on matters they do not
fully understand, pessimists who persist in the belief that Stalin is doing all he can to help Hitler and Mussolini to es- cape defeat. Both schools of thought cling to their theories in spite of every in Mos-
Those hard intellectuals whose pronouncement
vision is bounded by what their cow reaffirming Russia's mate:tal brain opens to them, do not in fact see far. In cricket the determination to remain unexpectedness may be fortuit-imperialist conquest, now uttering neutral. In a statement pectedness is equally apparent as a contingency, but by contrast is by the President of the the manifest means to an ordered Supreme Soviet on the plan: ordered not by man alone.
The pure intellectual is nearly 23rd anniversary of the always wrong in his judgment of October Revolution, he emphatically declared that Russia would stay
material spoils against marauding rivals whose moral title to them, if they could get them, was in the crudely essential sense no less ex- alted
Lord Halifax broadcasting to "Have we, the British people, been the nation, enunciated a principle in all respects above reproach? of the Christian faith. He said, for
In the pursuit of material instance: "Where will God lead gain, and possessing, as so many us? Not, we may be sure, through did, a pleasant life, plenty of re- casy or pleasant paths. That is laxation, and not too long hours not His way. He will not help us of toil, we were apt to forget that to avoid our difficulties. What He the strength of Britain in the past will do is to give to those who has been built up on service-ser- humbly ask the spirit that no dan- | vice to God, service to our coun-- gers can disturb. The Christian try,
service to our message to the world brings peace fellow men. Without this concep- in war; peace where we most need tion of service
no great nation it; peace of soul. It is that same can endure. Neglecting our religi- Christian message which makes ous obligations and in pursuit of its Giver, Who is God, the best pleasure, we filled the roads, but Friend with whom а man can deserted the churches. share life or death.
society of human beings, by an- other, is a clear transgression of “Those of us who cannot serve reason and of Christian principle. in the armed forces must all do Very well, it has become no longer our best in other ways to help It has become a quick and elcar possible. The poor mind of man is them. I'm sure we shall. And there
the which helpless beside that a cause,
overriding is one thing we can all do, soldiers, possibility 'started as
truths, which through sailors, airmen, and civilians, men, of Spiritual 3 sordid defence
human agency, but against hu- womim and children all together, the human which may be much more power- man intention, keep race in the long run on the rightful than we know. And this is to lines; correct its faults; restore its pray. But prayer is not only asking God for what we want, but predestined direction.
rather the way to learn to trust Him, to ask that we may know His Will, and do it with all our strength. If we can really do our work, whatever it is, as well as we can in God's sight it will be come His work, and we can safely leave the issue in His hands."
than our own, has been transformed into a true crusado, imposed on us against our will and even at first without our con-
scious knowledge,
aus. In the life of man the unex-
As the corrective and restora- tive process is consummated, we are presented with the glorious spectacle of the Foreign Secretary and the Commander-in-Chief of the armies (for instance) of Great Britain, though they be the very symbols of the former policies of
unaccustomed truths which sym-
bolise instead the new world into which we are passing. The religi- ous note that now rings through the utterances of politicians in the democratic countries is the great- est portent of the times.
Deserted The Churches
Lord Gort, giving an address in the B.B.C. evening service said:
Where Does Portugal
out of the war. But she With the war in the Mediter- could not be an indiffer-ranean area reaching a new phase, added importance is attached to ent bystander. Soviet sub-
Portugal. jects were urged to strengthen the economiction and military might of ire of 800,000 square miles their country and strive country
The foreign policy of this na-
ol 7,000,000 whose colonial
23 times as big as the mother
is being coveted by! Italy and Spain, has
Germany,
to fortify it for "the strug-indicated that Portugal seeks the
for Communism.' gle
Stand
To-Day?
jest these very gains be shattered by external developments.
Financial Progress
dents. Soon afterwards, however, he was called upon again and his terms were met this time. He entered the cabinet as Minister of Finance in 1928 and in 1932 be came not only Prime Minister, but Minister of Finance, of War, and of Foreign Affairs, combining the four most important offices in the
As time government.
went on, He became a virtual dictator.
|
and
Did we not all too gladly accept the material benefits which came our way without pausing to re- member
worth that everything in this world demands having some service in return? Is it not possible that reverence-reverence for our country and its traditions, reverence for all that is best in Britain end, above all reverence for God-were lacking in our mo dern outlook? It is a plain fact that unless a country bases its life on religious faith it cannot endure. And to-day it is evident to every one of us that we engaged not solely in a fight for democracy, but over and above that in a crusade for the mainten- ance of those religious principles which we were taught as children by our mothers.”
ous
arc
It is to be remarked that religi- pointedly propensities are absent from the pronouncements of Herr Hitler and Signor Musso- lini. Signor Mussolini has at any rate been consistent. He has al- ways based his ambitions exclu- sively on the power of his army, havy and air force. He has never pretended that he is aware of God. He has never mentioned 'God in his speeches. He is the very per- fection of the pure intellectual who puts two and two together and gets the surprise of his life.
Herr Hitler, by contrast, having heard of God, and having no doubt sensed with his keen objective nose for strategic values, that there may be a propagandist niche for God in his strategy, has on more than one occasion thanked God for German victories. There is no reason to regard him in this mat- ter as insincere. He probably be- lieves that God is using him. What is more, he is probably right; but not in the sense of his own inter- pretation.
One of the most important of middle of the road.
these gains which Portugal has Only recently a "mutual con-made in the past
is 12 years Since then it is obvious sultation and assistance pact" was finance.
signed with General Franco's gov- In a world where debts are that Soviet policy caused ernment. Some 18,000 Portu- mounting and most of the Euro- guese have fought for General pean nations are living far above Hitler to drop his Bulgar-Franco and Portugal's Prime Min- their means, Portugal has become ister, Dr. Oliveiro Salazar, fa- an exception by returning to a
A Surgeon's Operation ian adventure like a hot
voured the Spanish revolution as sound economic system. This is brick.
long as the fighting was directed seen best by the fact that within
Obviously Hitler is being used, against the Communists. But he 76 years, from 1852 to 1928, the try received became uneasy when the alliance nation had but two balanced budgave him authority to manage the somewhat after the manner of a with the Axis seemed to be closer gets. All the others accumulated. Nation's business. But practically surgeon's knife, in an operation
The expenditure, for instance, in than he liked it.
1926-27, exceeded the country's revenues by about 40 per cent. During the administration of Dr. has Salazar, however, Portugal
Névertheless, it can be said with some degree of accuracy that only one thing is certain in regard to Russia's future policy; and that is its underlying
The recent pact again was less proof of deep friendship between the State of General Franco and the State of Dr. Salazar than a hint to both Germany and Gare a Britain that "protection" might
not be welcome, A.balance of principle of security. If Portugal's foreign policy is up- parent in its alliance with Eng- Britain and the Axis pow-land. ers could fight each other to a standstill and be ut- terly exhausted by the struggle, the outcome would,suit Soviet Russia Assembly, admirably. The pro-
of her
blem
security, already partly tackled by means of easy annexa- tions, would then be automatically solved. The distress and chaos created by a long war would also provide receptive soil for Communist propaganda. And Stalin would be well
pleased. This is the most reasonable interpretation of the Russian enigma. If
No British Request In a speech before the National Dr. Salazar said on October 9, 1939, that Britain bad not asked any help from Portugal,
although the latter would have been obliged to enter the war on England's side by virtue of the existing alliance between the two
venues.
this
New Constitution
The new Constitution the coun-
on March 19, 1933, |
the only point on which he has exercised anything approaching fanaticism is in regard to saving and putting the Nation's budget on a sound basis. A popular joke in Portugal suggested that Dr. Salazar had even taken over four Ministries in order to have the salary of three members of the Government,
that is fashioning a better world and a better England; for his challenge was necessary before England (for instance) could ; be shaken out of her complacent and smug self-righteousness into a new and living consciousness elemental things such as were ex- pressed by Lord Halifax and Lord Gort on the occasions above 're- ferred to. 2
"
of the
managed to keep expenditures just a little bit under the re
weeks ago A few
when the process was crowned whole foreign debt of about 27,000,000 English pounds
was He differs from other authorita-
On June 5 Herr Hitler, on the converted into an internal debt. rian rulers in other respects, too. eve of the battle for France and
The principal method by which All parties have been dissolved in on the morrow of the defeat of the. Dr. Salazar has accomplished this-Portugal and there exists but the Low Countries, Iŝstied a procłama- feat in balancing the budget has, National Union, a kind of patriotic tion to the German people, order- been through heavy taxation, and, organisation, open to any good, ing the church bells to be rung by bringing the nation's banking citizen. In the matter of the for three days, and adding: “May system more or less under direct] persecution of minorities, Portu- their ringing accompany the pray- government control.
gal's record is less sinister than ers which the German people will that of some dictatorships. Com- continue to offer for their sons, munists have been severely dealt because this morning the German with, however.
divisions, and air units have been A fofeigner, coming to Lisbon, assigned new tasks in the tight
for the freedom aind the future of: Professor's Methods
as this writer did two years ago, our people." The fact that Dr. Salazar has would get the impression that he accomplished this is no less note-is watched -24 Hours worthy when it is considered that There seems to be one policeman God's role in life is confined with He expressed the hope, how-the was not originally a politician for every citizen. One is told that in the frontiers of Greater Ger- ever, that peace might be pre-but a university professor. He they are "just a precaution," they many. On July 19, making another served, "unless the dignity or in- came from a very poor family terests of the nation, or other His father was an innkeeper, and obligations, force us to go to wa it was only through hard work He did not fail to reiterate "our that the younger Salazar man- sincere feeling of friendship for aged to make his way through to England," adding, that "it would a professorship in national eco- not be fair if we failed to stressnomy at Colmbra University, the adherence to our alliance." He had his own ideas about the In the same speech Dr. Salazar Government's failings, and he made public that Germany, and articles and pamphlets which guaranteed Portugal's indepen- dence and the integrity" of the Portuguese colonial empire.
countries.
*
a day. Heri Hitler's conception of
have to see to it that nobody of his fantastic pacans about Ger- deviates from the Constitution.man victories and God's, part in They are a peripatetic symbol of them, he said: "It almost causes this compromise between demo-me pain to think that I should have been selected by fate to deal cracy and Fascism.
the final blow to the structure The same middle road has been (namely, the British Empire). kept in every way. The Govern which these men, (namely the ment has an eye on everything British politicians) have already It promotes exports, but sale of set tottering Delivering final ends of prin countries dy blows against those who resist his
on a permission given only aggressions is Herr Hitler's sup- built up a circle of young people if home consumptión needs have reme conception of God's work, as around him. When the Nation been met first. Dr. Salzaur has delegated to Herr Hitler, causing was in need, socially, economical little to say for the barter, system him pain by the sense of his res- it is a correct reading of tween Britain and Germany, no the Republic offered Dr. Salazar kept free of any restrictions and His pain no doubt was eased by
Bút this *balanced policy be-ly and politically, the President of and autarchy. Gurrency has been ponsibility. Moscow's future policy, it matter how well it is working at the post of Minister of Finance, it was closely related to the pound the Sieghell" that immediately emphasises the need for the present time has to allay The Professor refused on the sterling (110.10 escudos to one followed for "the guarantor of Portugal's uneasiness over the grounds that he did not want to pound), until in last November German victory" (the said guaren- achieving an early victory fact that this country, with its do an unsound job, collaborating the British currency lost value tor now being Herr Hitler exclu- Though he himself be against. Hitlerism and enormous oversea' possessions and with the old politicians who had and the escudo was fixed to the sively).
other assets, would constitute a dragged the country from one re- United States dollar. Trade with blandly unaware of it, and even having a definite plan for rich prize for any aggressor ha volt of people and army to un-the United States has gone up, incapable of appreciating it, a man social and economic re-tion. For this reason Portugal, other.
too. "Imports from “this country like Herr Hiller ran indeed be almost doubled in 1939 exports used for God's purposes: as the construction after the despite many Internal gains which have marked it as one of Europe's
remained steady. Christian better world will one day realise. war
The rose needs the manure. most "progressive states, is uneqsy
Science Monitor").
He asked for full power. They refused to give it to him and he went home to his university stu-