THE CHINA MAIL, MARCH 5, 1941.
CHINA MAIL
-WINDSOR HOUSE
COMMUNIST
FRICTION IN CHINA
Absence of the Com-
munist delegates from the sessions of the Peo- ple's Political Council in Chungking serves one useful
purpose. It ex- poses what many of the closest sympathisers of Free China have been' at pains trying to hide: That the essential points of dis- agreement between the Government and the Communists go deeper than it has been comfort-
able to admit. That is
not to suggest that the difficulties cannot
even
yet be ironed out. There
is one solid issue on which: both Chungking and
Yenan can agree, the vital necessity of continued re- sistance to Japanese ag- gression.
SCUTTLED !
BULGARIA
IN THE TRUE NAZI TRADITION
"Crusade For
Civilisation"
tion" (Routledge, 7s. 6d.) shows present-day "Imperialisms"
are the
totalitarian nutions
"The
Page T
less than that of any foreign oc-, cupation, is it too much to hope that the proved failure of this tyranny even to justify itself in its own terms of military success, will produce a revulsion of Ger- man gentiment which, if we know how to play up to it, will cause a mighty renaissance of German civilisation along with a renounce- ment of Prussianism, super-Prus- slanism, and all their works? . . .
The author is in no doubt, how- ever, that the Prussian spirit must be crushed. He writes:-
"One thing is clear, Even if we should win the war, the peace will be hopelessly lost unless, by one means or another, it is possible to give Germany back her soul, and to woo or persuude her to for- sake the bondage of her present tyranny for membership of, and cummution with, the Common- wealth of free nations. For that no sacrifice will be too great, and no measure of forgiveness exces- sive.
"What will remain to be done with Prussia will present the hard- est problem of all. To deny the possibility of her ultimate con- version would be to despair of human nature, And the
great Prussian
really
qualities of de- votion, and self-sacrifice may be as powerful in the service of good as that of evil,
"But to change a spuit that has persisted and grown continuoush, for centuries is easier said tim done. And until we have plait and practical proof of the Prus- sian being for, instead of against. civilisation, he must for his own good, and everyone else's safety. have his claws cut, and bis jaw a
muzzled,
There Must Be No Totalitarian Regime
"No principle of sane freedom commands us to let a dangerous wild beast loose on the world, Ani
to hand over the natives of trop!- and call of which we are fighting to deliver cai colonies against their wills, to Germany, but that the German the tender mercies of a Power people itself is the enemy, and
the principles that Hitlerism has to be accepted wedded openly to as the permanent sub-conscious and practice tyranny, would man, which only force, continu- faith and religion of every Ger-
be to touch a lower depth of crime even than of lunacy... ously applied, can prevent from coming to the surface?
in the abstract-has the remotest
Between conflicting ar- guments from both sides as to the merits of the dispute, there is clear suggestion that the faults,| such as they are, do not lie entirely on one side or the other. That in its turn Dr. Esine Wingfield Stratford in they hopefully assume, will be at, that it is not the Nazi regime from
his book. "Crusade for Civilisa- the permanent beck implies the necessity for a
the League politicians.
pros and cons of spirit of give and take if that
such may turnish and schemes
a good a happy solution of an un-that the ambitions of all peoples for a debating society, or fill out enough evening's entertainment
fortunate development is should be free association by the a lively pamphlet, but to wait till tie of mutual consent. In compar-ne of them--whatever its merits to be found.
ing a commonwealth to the League chance of materialising, is to wait "This belief, which would leave Generalissimo Chiang of Nations, the author writes:---- for the Greek calends. The most no ground for hope except in the of the sort that any practical man extermination or perpetual helo- Kai-shek came to a work-
commonwealth of will dare to envisage is the put-tage of the entire German people, ting together again, and perhaps is the most suicidal form of pro- have something ing arrangement with the the future must
a certain reinforcement, of the paganda. more to bind it together than a broken - down machinery at Communists because he mere formal constitution like that Geneva. realised that it was only of the League. It is not even cer- by a supreme united effort
constitution at all. The British that China could hope to Commonwealth gets an well resist Japan successfully.nough, and far better than the League, without anything of the There had to be an end to sort, unless we are to speak of the all fratricidal strife. But occasional imperial conferences as
a sort of token organisation, the price paid for this na- tional unity it is now can- tended is the danger of tirely false idea, and one of which
"Our world
tah that it will need to have a
"It is, I would submit, an en-
the Commonwealth is a standing
of
The
"There must be no sort of Totalitarian regime; no gestapo, Jewbaiting, or concentration camps; no militarisation of youth er gangs of storm troopers. principles of freedom do not ex- "Even those of us who have not tend to allowing gangsters to or- yet travelled in Southern or Wes- ganise their rackets in peace, or "This time, perhaps, it may be tern Germany, those who are too got to work, given the spirit to
train up their children in crooks" - young to look back to the time Work it. But given that spirit, the when leaders of British culture colleges." League, or Commonwealth, may could look to Germany as a spiri- be trusted, at a pinch, to dispense tual home, ought to know better In his Epilogue Dr. Wingfield than to speak of the countrymen Stratford sums up the policy and with any machinery at all, and to thrive us a gentleman's agree of Goethe, Beethoven, of ment between gentlemen. But this Durer, of Martin
ideals of his "Crusade for Civili- time there must be none of the species of barbarians
Luther, as а
and Huns, sation." opposite sort to wreck it. Mem-
or us having, within the span of bership must be confined to those
one mortal life, became Prussian- who have the objects of the as-
ised past praying for. sociation at heart, and in whose good faith it is reasonably pos-
sible to confide.
"We peoples of the British Com-- monwealth," he writes, "at last know the strength as well as the "Our victory will be no victory unless we can confirm it by get- evil, of this devilry that has come ting the best part of the German up against us, and I do not think Communist influence disproof, that international unity worth, is in trusting wholly, or as stead of repeating our
"My own belief, for what it is people back for civilisation, in- there is any one who doubts of our
hideous us possible, to the team blunder, after the spreading over an ever- cannot be effected without some much
last war, of own strength to meet it and, in sort of super-State machinery, or spirit of spontaneous and free driving them back into the arms due time, to save our souls alive, widening area. It is being what our
cooperation between free peoples. of Prussia. For it was neither ori-whatever happens to our bodies, or ancestors would have
Get on with the good work of ginal sin nor the love of tyranny our possessions. said, in fact, that the fear called a social contract. There are civilisation; get into the habit of for its own sake that made the even thinkers like Mr. H. G. working together, and having tast-German feel that Prussia indis-
"Ithus penetrated the very of Communist expansion (walls, of whom one cannot speak ed of its benefits, let practice make pensable to him, but simply be depths of our common conscious
cause he had come to feel that ness that our defeat now will be in North China is the without the deepest respect, who
nothing but the Iron of Prussian the defeat of mankind, the death- will not be content without
discipline, entering his soul, could sentence on life itself; and that de- most disturbing factor in
world cabinet, with ministers and
suve him from remaining, what he feat is therefore, and has got to be had been for centuries, the hope- unthinkable. the mind of the Central departments all complete.
less victim of his own incapacity to combine.
Government. But it would
be_China's greatest_tra-
gedy if an irremediable
a
perfect.
"Enough that we have only our own souls to rely on now, the Kingdom within us, a stronger and deeper certainty than that of our enemies. We are not going to L-iail."!
No Ground For Hope
"It was the habit of the Spur- tans, the Nazis of classical Greece," There are others who want to anys DrWingfield Stratford-in split occurred at this form what they euphemistically his chapter "Whither Germany,
term a world police, and will "to declare a perpetual state of
This is an interesting book full- stage in her united front. really consist of a polyglot army, war on their helots, just as the
of constructive suggestions and. or Pretorian guard, with navy Germons do, by implication, on
discriminating, thinking people And nothing would serve and air force attached, which will Jews, Poles, Czechs, and all such. "Now that he has had experl-will find in it much, that will help hold a disarmed world at its But are we not coming very close ence, in his own daily life, of a them to face the problems of our Japan's interests, better. mercy, and whose commanders, to the same thing, when, we argue | tyranDY IPIS GIVNÍ Land macol. I time says "Public Opinion."
Proved Failure Of.
The Tyrant