CHINA MAIL The Price Of Security
~WINDSOR HOUSE
LEADERSHIP IN Is Constant Vigilance
DEMOCRACY
watchfulness
and
is
By "Taffrail",
ques-
next.
might
wire. The
have been
only
she will
In the series of broad-
Naval war consists in the main, to the various naval reserves, and fathom of
torpedo-fuss or bother. Everything went cast talks which he has of month after month of con- the others enrolled for the war. shaped floats with their red and off without a hitch The ship's
dreary The boom officer was a lieutenant green flags towed on either quar-company might all just published with the stant title "I Believe in Demo-monotony at sea, punctuated by who had earned the Distinguish-ter and indicating the trend of the born to the sea and working to-
hours and minutes of intense ex-ed Service Cross in the last war; sweep-wires beneath and between gether for years instead of
It is true that the ad- the skipper was an ex-trawlerman; them and the ship had their names for months. cracy" the Master of Bal-citement.
aircraft and the engineer had served for painted upon them-"Joan"
and The average number of days a liol makes an illuminating vent of submarines and
has greatly extended the periods many years on a railway in India. Pat." I was told that the mine-month spent at sea by that little 'about twenty- ex-Betiring and settling in the neigh-sweeping personnel had the pri-ship was round comparison between the and likelihood of dangerous
all warships and bourhood, he had offered his ser-vilege of taking turns in christen- three, in which period she covers This means Nazi system and the me-citement for Hundreds
merchant vessels.
of victs in any capacity on the out- ing them, so the names changed about 1,794 miles. thods of the old Ottoman ships of all types must have been break of war. Could he run an fairly frequently. Once they had that in a year of war
boiler and been "Rose" and "Gertle," which have done 21,528 miles. That is Empire. The Christians in action with U-boats or aircraft ordinary locomotive
Yet many push-and-pull engines, the naval like Joan and Pat, were young slightly more than seven times since the war began. in the territories ruled by hundreds more have not been in authorities asked him. The en-ladies living in the neighbourhood the distance from Liverpool to
affirma of the base.
New York, and represents a lot the Empire were compell-active conflict with either Ger-gineer answered in the
tive, wondering what stupid
The captain of that ship was af hard work when one recollects that minesweeping is not done at ed to send a proportion of man or Italian ships.
The work of those ships whose tion they would ask him
Royal Naval Reserve officer who had commanded a cargo steamer very high spood, their male children to names have not figured in official Had he any friends who
in peacetime. coinmuniques or honours lists
His navigator andi Two trawlers in which I also Constantinople. These
also none the less arduous or important
three engineers had been in the went to sea on patrol had the successful children were kept there a contribution to
service of the company before the done much arduous service since war. Of the three Royal Naval 'the war began. The skippers of as slaves and the most prosecution of the war. Patiently. stroke by stroke, and with infinite
Volunteer Reserve lieutenants, the both wore Scots fishermen. The promising of them were labour and toil, they are etching
peace-time occupation of one was group officer in one was a retired as an authority an the preserva-Lleutenant - Commander, RN., trained for administra- in the sombre background of the huge picture which embraces the
also like to volunteer? Theretion of buildings and the ravages whose peace-time employment is tion. Thus the Sultan's whole maritime theatre of opera-
an-with the Mersey Dock and Har- were three others like him, the of the death-watch beetle; This applies in particular io
do other was chief officials were oftention.
a chartered accountant, bour Board, while the other was a host of vessels from the Mer-engineer said, all anxious to
wella Lleutenant-Commander, R.N.R., their bit. All four enrolled, and and the third was the slaves drawn from
the chant Navy and the Fishing Flects|
The Navy has never regretted it.
known bank. The midshipintan, who had left the sea before
training. would war and was qualifying as a doc- non-Turkish populations. now commissioned as warships and
At another port I saw several sent there for
for tor when recalled for service of the private yachts taken over have been at University but They
afloat. were brought up lying the White Ensign.
by the Navy for patrol and anti-the war.
The bulk of the crew was made with a strict discipline
submarine purposes. One of these The professions of the ship's was commanded by a Captain of company were even more varied up by fishernien; but among them whom than those of the officers. There were a metropolitan policeman, a but to their corps and the Recently I have been on board, the Royal Naval Reserve
I had last seen in command of a was a sprinkling of active service paperhanger, an entertainer Sultan. In the same way or at sea, in various the pick of
Nazi what may be called the auxiliary famous Atlantic liner. The liner's petty officers and ratings, a lead-conjuror, à waiter, a stock-brok- tonnage was something over 45,000 ing seaman from the Royal Yachter's clerk, an employee in a farni- ture and upholstery business, and and her length more than 800 "Victoria and Albert," and some
Broad- a man from the British youth are trained in spe- merchant cruiser,
fect. The length of the yacht was prisoners, reservists and others! cial schools, renouncing ex-transatlantic
Marined largely little more than that of a cricket enrolled "for the duration." They casting Corporation's engineering into a warship.
pitch — 66 feet and her tonnage included a postman, a bricklayer, staff serving as a wireless -opera- all ties of home and kin, from the various naval reserves,
tor-and a very good operator in- several deep-seu trawlermen, boiler-maker, rivetter, boot-mak-deed, I was told by his command- brought up in blind devo- and with guns mounted, she had round about 100.
been employed in northern waters
er, and a dockyard labourer. The ing officer. tion to their leader. "The practically ever since the begin-
telegraphist was
its surveyor
The war-time Navy, with civil life, and the signalman an manifold tasks and functions, has one thing they are not to'ning of
insurance agent.
need of all these men, and of the have is any thoughts of thousands of miles she may have
They ships in which they serve. their own." "In both cases
are all doing arduous service in
risk the face of, no little
and the rulers select and train
danger.
of As the First Lord leaders on whose loyalty they can count.
and no ties of any kind
the
navy.
ships of
an The first was
armed a well-known liner converted
the war. How many
Her cfficers and days enjoyed about three
I all
men leave they
strange on contrast to the time I was
S
a **
а
in
and
I went to sea minesweeping in steamed since the war started
a paddle sicamer belonging to a do not pretend to know; but
to take crowds of excursionists, to the through the gales, snowstorms, and railway company which used long, dark nights of the northern local beauty spots and watering
had winter her normal routine
places. Transformed into a man- I watched the officers and men the Admiralty said, in a speech been eighteen to nineteen days
of-war she had a complement of at their work, streaming the on August 7, "The price of secur- out followed by five days to a
or sweeps, going through an ordinary ity is constant vigilance, and the In the totalitarian week in harbour for refueling and fifty officers and men, a gun
two, and the usual mine-sweep, day's routine, and then getting price of the free way of life is States there is an all- storing.
with all its paraphernalia of win-them in again preparatory to re-leven greater vigilance backed by ches, and floats, and fathom upon turning to harbour. There was no i unremitting effort." powerful minority party every six weeks, and well which has the strength of deserved it. a strict discipline and
Her by suppressing board her before the war. governs freedom and independent public had been stripped of their In Great Britain hangings and curtains had dis- the community is com- appeared from her private suites. The children's play-room had posed of a great number been converted into a shelter for of voluntary societies, and guns' crews in bad weather, and there is freedom of dis- whole ranges of cabins demolished to form messdecks. All the ela- cussion.
Trews.
That ship presented a
Danelling and tapestries.
Silken
Apart from that, she had the
nets gular cat's cradle of
How Hitler Has Copied
and search
In early 1939, Sir Paul Dukes, K.B.E., went to Czechoslovakla via Germany on
mission a special for a prominent Czech, Alfred Obry, who was missing, and whose London friends were prepared to pay the Gestapo for his release.
Moscow
powers....
Press and propaganda apparatus struction and 'culture' are made In these talks borate fripperies had disappeared
of both regimes is identical in to serve first and foremost Party
Goebbels,- indeed, ends. Dr. Lindsay recalls the for the grim purpose of war.
At another port I went on
Sir Paul found Alfred Obry, or character.
"The system of 'election' and important part played by board a boom defence vessel at least his remains, buried under might have been a faithful dis-
type, another name, and the starting ciple of the Jewish founder of the popular 'representation' are close-. the different protesting which, with others of her
Zinoviev-Apfelbaum. ly alike. No candidates may be Inde- has the task of watching the lines events leading up to this grim Comintern, religious bodies,
of buoyed nets and booms which discovery are related by Sir Paul Those acquainted with the style put forward other than those ap- dominant party, naval in his book, "An Epic of the of oratory and argumentation of proved by the
both Goebbels and Zinoviev can- and the voters may only vote af- pendents and Baptists, in protect most of Britain's
and commercial harbours. A small Gestapo."
not but have been struck by firmatively or abstain. the seventeenth century vessel of about 700 tons, she was The author's dealings with the
"In consequence, Nazi and Bol- motive dreaded Gestapo
in Berlin and their marked resemblance, even in
'parliaments' resemble in giving form and tena- provided with her own
power for steaming from place to Prague, their attacks of Anglo- terminology, illustration and the shevist
each other in nature and func- city to democratic ideas, a place. Most of her time, how-, phobia and the desire of their talent for inventing cheap jibes.
"True, in 1938, Stalin shot his tion, being devoid of any truly re
character. The subject that he discussed ever, she spent stationary on the victims to get to England are all
and comrade presentative erstwhile friend Zinoviev - Apfelbaum, together Reichstag and the Soviet Unifor in his book "The Essen-boom, using her winches to open | recorded.
the "gate" to admit traffic, clos- His views on Hitter and espe- with many other associates of long Council are merely audiences con- tials of Democracy." It ing in again after the shipping
cially the Communist Pact, make standing who refused to toe the vened occasionally to listen to and
decisions But Hitler ratify the
already shows again how the chal-had passed.
most interesting reading at this zig-zag Stalin line. juncture. Sir Paul was in Ger- likewise has liquidated' no small taken and acted upon by Hitler lenge of industrialism to job of laying and maintaining the many at the time of the agree- number of his closest friends who and Stalin. These bodies are not democracy produced heavy anchors, buoys and a re-
ment signed by Germany and ventured to oppose him in word even endowed with consultative and Russia, and dealing with the or deed. trade unions, cooperative wire hawsers. It was no sinecure
many phases ́of agreement 'be- "In the economic sphere, the "The attitude of both dictators societies, the Workers' in the fierce tides and blowing tween Nazism and Communisth, Nazi system of far-reaching and towards religion is similar. Hit Educational Association, weather which usually prevailed
ever-increasing Government con- ler's hatred of Christianity de- no joke at all when buoys and he writes: and similar movements. barrels broke adrift in the midst "It had taken us by surprise trol of imports and exports, of rives from the race of its found only in its suddenness and scope, production and distribution of pri-er Stalin's, from the militant following upon years of vitriolic vate banking accounts, and of atheist nature of Marxist doctrine, for it shows that a demo-
abuse and the Fuehrer's reiterated prices of the commonest things By different paths they arrive on declaration that any form of al- such as household repairs and au- common ground, and it is not cratic society creates its
Hance with Russia must inevitably tomobile parts, approximated surprising to find them there pro- own institutions. But he
spell doom for Germany. But was even in peace time more and claiming a common detestation of
new When they were warns us that the pro-
the the agreement itself after all so more closely to the system pre- the democratic principles of li-
I had been studying | valling in Russia.
berty and political and social blems of leadership be-game steamers unacquainted with unnatural?
the resemblance between the neighbourhood sometimes came the
"True, Hitler has never official rights which are the ideal of west- come steadily harder and charging through the boom at Nazi and Bolshevist administra- ly abolished private property, nor ern civilisation.
of tions, and there was plenty of Stalin officially recognised it. "Where Nazi Germany and Bol that the demands made midnight, to wrap fathoms
wire hawser round their propellor ground for mutual understanding But wide deviation from theory on shevist, Russia must eventually both sides brought them close to- come into conflict," sums up Sir gether, and under war conditions Paul Dukes, "is in the contradic- á democracy steadily in-by the stern. Vituperation flowed
through megaphones, one indig-of Moscow is the prototype of all there is little to distinguish them tion between the hypernationalis➡ -
'dictatorships Government to- nant tramp skipper demanding totalitarian
and in practice.
tic ideals of Hitler and the neo- - "Under both regimes education imperialistic and ultimately of day is an extraordinarily "What's this blinkin' boom doing upon it in greater or lesser ex-
It world-revolutiohary ・ aims subsequent totalitarian is run on similar principles, here?" except that his language tent all delicate and complex ma-was more impolite than that. The regimes, but particularly that of is calculated primarily to prevent Stalin. Here clash is inevitable. chine and our education boom defence officer retorted with the Nazis, have been modelled, the youthful mind from imbibing But meanwhile, with slight ad-
interest. Portions of his boom: "One of the most remarkable any but official doctrines. Es- comtriolation on must be vastly improved been sadly mangled. He things about Adolf Hitler is that sential subjects such as history opportunist purposes, they may, if we are to find leaders would have to make good the he has produced little or nothing literature and geography are di even though Jealously watching
( that is truly original,
given a strong political basis. each other's moves, travel far to- who are competent to damage.
The men of that little ship were "Besides the Gestapo, an exact Dissident teachers and professors gether in their common hatred of handle and direct it.
a hard-bitten lot, some belongingTeplica of the Cheka Ogpu, the are ruthlessly persecated, and in- democracy and Christendom.”.
All this is encouraging, and had to be rescued.
of a pitch-black squady night
to
on the spiritual power of and to find themselves hitched up if rivalry was set aside,
"The Communist dictatorship
crease.
both sides for