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THE CHINA MAIL, MARCH 7, 1941.
CHINA MAIL
-WINDSOR HOUSE
THAILAND'S ASPIRATIONS
The history of French relations with Thailand over the period of the last century provides suf- ficient evidence of succes- sive French encroach- ments of an imperialistic. nature to justify Bang- hok's enthusiastic come of Japan's 'media- tion' proposals as requir- ing nothing of France which is not Thailand's just due.
wel-
Were this the sole issue involved, indeed, a dis-| pute between two coun- tries with an arbitrator's award resisted by one of the two parties, there would be little disposition. to show any more pati- ence with France than is at present being exhibited by Japan.
The whole of the cir-
cumstances connect- ed with the episode, how- ever, suggest very strong- ly that Japan's has been, the guiding hand from the beginning, and that,' wittingly or unwittingly, Thailand has permitted herself to be exploited as a tool in a bigger and more dangerous game. The protracted negotia- tions in Tokyo, for this
THE BALKAN CHESSBOARD
HITLER: "YOU DIDNT KEEP THAT PIECE COVERED, DID YOU, JOE?”
Let's
Nice
would
Have
Some
Fresh Air
As it was B afternoon -
Page T
History Repeats
At the beginning of the last World War Bulgaria had' enferéd into negotiations with the Allies thinking that she would recover some of the territory lost in the Balkm War of 1913. The people favoured the cause of the Allies, and many of the leading statesmen of Bulgaria were pro-Russian, but the Czar Ferdinand and his sup- porters leaned towards Berlin and
By W. Rees Harriss
Vienna, who promised them an outlet on the Aegean as well as the Greek territory of Epirus. Ferdinand's policy resulted in it steret trenty with the Central Powers, and only became known to the people when Bulgaria com- |menced military operations on the
side of Germany with an attack on Serbia in the late Autumn of 1913.
This action
aroused the wrath
of the then Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Sazonoff, re- sulting in the breaking off of dip- lumatic relations. The ultimatum. sent by Russia to Bulgaria follow- ed on a statement contaming these words: The whole Russian nation 18 aroused by the unthinkable treachery of Ferdmand and his government to the Slavic cause. Bulgaria owes her independence to Russia, and seems now willing to become # vassal et Russis
enemies,
The opening words of the Rus- sian ultimatum are almost appli- cable to the situation which has preceded Bulgaria's present align- ment with Germany, viz:-
"Events which are taking place in Bulgaria at this moment give evidence of the definite decision of
The rest of us were all men, "Would you and none of us had the courage Bulgaria." The ultimatum con-
to ask her to behave with com- mon humanity. As we shivered in our seats, we stared at her with detestation, and exchanged mean- ing and malevolent glances with each other. But she was apparently unconscious of her unpopularity.
King Ferdinand's Government to place the fate of its country in If a Gallup inquiry were held and then he would cast a look of strike when there was no heat-
the hands of Germany. The pre- reason, are being watched into the popular attitude to fresh anguish at the window.
ing in the carriages, The day
sence of German and Austrian air, I wonder which side
was icy, and an cast wind was with close attention not get the more vutes-the advocates
beautiful sunny blowing, yet a young woman sit-officers at the Ministry of War and of the army, the of fresh air or its enemies. unmixed with anxiety.
spring day out of ting in a corner kept the window on the staffs season—1 hardened my heart and wide open beside her as she read concentration of troops on the zone bordering on Serbia, no longer Those who dislike fresh air pretended not to see his misery. her novel.
leave any doubt as to the object The final outcome, at have. I think, the greater energy At last, however, he rose to his
of the military preparations of. and are probably the more pugna- feet, leaned over to me and made the moment, cannot be cious. They have already succeed- the earnest appeal:
cluded with the words: "The derogatory epithet predicted, but it is desired in fixing
has, therefore, Russian Minister on their opponents in the public them in- able that, if the worst mind and have made
received orders to leave Bulgaria with all the staffs of the Legation famous as "fresh air fiends." comes to the worst, Thai-
and the Consulates, if the Bul-
land should bear in mind
garian Government does not with- in twenty-four hours break with the enemies of the Slav cause and that she has other friends
Russia, and does not at once pro- This is good propaganda, and
I remember in particular one ceed to send away the officers be. besides Japan. In Sep- the lovers of fresh air have done
passenger with a red moustache jonging to the armies of states. nothing to counter it. They mind having the window up a whose nose got bluer and bluer who are at war with the powers... tember last she ratified a
might have retorted with "fugittle?" Not having the deter-as his feet got colder. When he of the Entente." non-aggression pact with ends," but they are a patientmination of a
fresh air haler, I arrived at London and the woman Britain which had been race not given to reverige.
yielded and pulled up the window, went off down the platform he leaving only an inch open at the turned to me with the frost of hatred sparkling in his eyes and said with intense bitterness: "The next time she goes by train she should travel on the roof."
By Robert Lynd
signed three months ear- Not only in words but in deeds | top. lier. This caused much do the haters of fresh air show a
superior activity. If hater of Even that did not make the satisfaction in London, fresh air gets into a railway com- little man happy; and, indeed, it where it was felt that the partment he will begin almost be is my opinion that an inch of fore he has taken his seat plotting window in a railway train some- treaty would have an im- and planning how to get the win-times lets in a more malicious
draught than a wide-open window portant bearing on the dow shut. part which Thailand may have to play as a factor for stability and peace in South-Eastern Asia. That
It does not matter if he is sit-
ting with his back to the engine or in the far corner from the win-
dow: he hates the thought that any trickle of fresh air should be til lowed to invade the compartment and prevent the atmosphere from becoming soporific,
A similar ultimatum was sent at the same time by Great Britain. and France.
arms
It is seldom, however, that a The Bulgarian Government em- rech air fiend in a train gets his boldened by the thought that Ger- for her way in this fashion. I can man
must eventually rethember only one 'other instance triumph, flouted the ultimatums. of a fresh air fland successfully She denied the presence of Ger- opposing the wishes of the rest of man officers on the staffs of the the passengers.
Bulgarian army, and even if they Anyhow, the little man sat, with
were present, she said, it was the his head in his hands; making the
He was asked to close the win-concern of Bulgaria only. is only if the renamed
most extraordinary noises In his dow, though the day was mild. He throat, so that the passengers were said: "It's only fair to warn you, and Bulgaria finally collapsed are How Ferdinand lost his throne "Land of the Free" insists
afraid he was going to have a sei-gentlemen, that I'm suffering from on being allowed to work
zure. 1 ain perfectly sure that this was all make-believe, because the window is shut, some of you
La bad attack of influenza, and, if common knowledge, out its own destiny. As
when at last he got the window may become infected with the no more than a pawn in
shut, his whole appearance germs." The proposal to shut the man of this temper changed and it was clear that he window was not proceeded with. Japan's "New Order" came into a compartment in was as hale a man as is, to be found strategy, Thailand will which I was sitting the other day in the Home Counties. realise, when it is too late, ably at the window that was open and at once began staring miser-
I am not myself, I may say, an that in the totalitarian beside me. Other people came in out-and-out fresh air flend. I scheme of things small and filled the compartment not have sat in a train hating just like only with themselves but with to anybody else the person who kept nations must only be pup-bucco-smoke, but the little man a window open. pets and the weak have no kept fussing in his seat, coughing, rights.
'A little
and hoisting his coat-collar higher I remember travelling from round his neck, while every now Brighton one day during a coal
get his way about keeping win- dows open in railway trains.
On the whole, I think fresh air. Is becoming more popular than it used to be. Behind black-ont cur- tains we miss those agrecable cur"" rents of air that used to prevent
I have often wondered whether | stagnation. In air-raid shelters, the man really had influenza or too, many of the shelterers muse whether he had merely discovered long for the return of the amenitie a clever trick by which he could of a draughty home.