THE CHINA MAIL, MARCH 10, 1941
CHINA MAIL
"WINDSOR HOUSE
AFRICAN CAMPAIGN
It is an old military adage that successes at the periphery are often dangerous because they may divert attention and resources from the centre. In estimating the steadily growing victories of the British forces against the Italians in Africa we can-' not afford to lose sight of this principle. The war
will be won or lost, even- tually, in or over the Bri- tish Isles or Germany: soon or late one of these: countries must be the main theatre of war if the conflict is not to end. merely in a stalemate. But the British victoriesį in Africa have been so un- interrupted and tional, and the extent of the Italian rout so great and obvious, that the cumulative moral and po- litical results, even apart from the immediate mili- tary gains, cannot fail to be profound.
sensa-
re-
SMITH YATES ON PASSAGE
OF THE AID BRITAIN BILL
*
AID
To
BRITAIN
HEAD-ACHES FOR HITLER
>>
150LA TI=NIST
AERORATIVES
SHIPS
Lady Reading
In attempting to fore- see the next great move of the war, Germany mains the great mystery. On paper, the military power of Germany is now tremendous. It has the; most powerful army in the world, organised in some 250 divisions. Last Spring its equipment was
In May 1938, when it became shown to be superior to apparent that women would have to do their share in helping to that of any other nation; run the civil defence of the coun- it has since been able to try, Sir Samuel Hoare, who had force the workers of other been approached by representa
recent
war
tives of various women's organ-
By June Head
Getting The Best
sistance of a newsreel camera- man, get down to work.
This system of working, and the fact that it does work, is due to Lady Reading's flair for char- acter and trust in her own judg- inent. As a result of it, all the helpers in the W.V.S. share the feeling that their work is fun, that there is enjoyment as well as necessity in the doing of it.
Page T
Freedom Army
If there is one spot more than Britain itself which is the Free Empire's very own battlefield, it is the Middle East,
It provides the classic example of what free men will do for a Commonwealth that gives them more liberty of opinion and ac- tion than any in the world's his- tory.
The example does not even end there. With this multi-sided war machine of the Middle East are many free warriors from Nazi- enslaved countries.
Gathered
over thousands of miles from northernmost Pulsa- tine to southernmost Tanganyika, from the western frontiers of
By John Cashel
Egypt and the Sudan to eastern Transfordun and the Red Sea is the greatest Empire Army and most diverse Foreign Legion ever known.
The cosmopolitan character of this Freedom Army No. 2 at least equals that of the Freedom Army No. 1 that guards Britain's own shores.
A teeming multitude of many tongues and many faiths, with but a single aim, Mussolini has guessed its numbers at well over
a quarter of a million. That may be more or less than the truth.
Several divisions are from the Mother Country, sent out and reinforced since the
war, over and above the strong garrisons that were already in Palestine and Egypt.
Beside them are Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, the Indian force of Britons, Sikhs, Pathans, Gurkhas, Mahrattas, each one of whose countries has not only poured man-power into the Middle East cockpit over the long sea, and land routes, but also mins, munitions, all the com- plicated material paraphernalia of modern mechanised war down to food and clothing, including such tropical equipment as ichaki drill uniforms. pith topees and mus- quito nets.
Among this diverse Army you will find side by side in Palestine the Jews and Arabs, who have buried their old enmities, because the one
is threatened by Nazi persecution and the other by the menace to the freedom of the religion of Islam.
theatre of war in which the horse.
There too, in this the only
is being used-are some of the few British remaining regiments of horced cavalry and the Palestine
Yeomanry.
Still
desert.'
nations to supply it with isations anxious to be of ser- foodstuffs and
vice but a little puzzled us to
cry of 'Give us a that the 50 could set about it - how they material. Its air force is went to call
on Lady Reading lead!', which is apt to rise only still estimated to be far She is the kind of person
to too readily in moments of crisis, whom people instinctively turn in is silenced by the habit of indivi-
The Under-Fifties
more picturesque, across greater in size than that
emergency. She has a command- dual initiative.
the border in British-mandated of Britain. There are in ing presence, a humorous eye, a
"That Lady Reading should Transjordan, is the Frontier theory all sorts of military of energy that never expends it- deep, precise voice, and the kind
champion the cause of the under- Force of Arabs, with British off- fifties is only fair, because she cers, whose commander is Major moves now open to Hitler: self in trivial words or gestures. Lady Reading's capacity for herself is well under fifty. But John Bagot Glubb, OB.E., M.C.,
The result of this visit an attack on
was managing people without letting it isn't, Greece that in June of the same year the them know they are being man- fairness; it all comes back to that
after all, a question of Arab-garbed "mystery man of the through Bulgaria, Yugo-women's organisations found aged is exercised most brilliantly intangible matter of personality. In Palestine and in Egypt slavia or Italy; an attack Women's Voluntary
The at themselves, incorporated in
committee meetings. These The Arst Impression on meeting the focal point of these. Middle Services for she directs as an expert conduc- her is of serenity. Yet her life is East operations - also stand side on Gibraltar through Civil Defence. By October the tor directs his
orchestra, com- made up of rapid journeys all by side with British, Dominion whole country was alive Spain; and finally, an fact of A.R.P. To-day the W.V.S. of harmony that she wants.
to the pelling out of them the balance | over
the country. She spends and Colonial troops, Free French- She three days a week touring the men and Syrians who crossed the "all-out" assault on Great is the largest organisation of ile has proved that to get the best counties; she has motored 45,000 Syrian border when Petain's Britain itself by air or an rolled membership of 700,000.
kind in the world, with an en- out of people you must make miles and covered several thou-France capitulated, Free. French- high demands on them. Treat sand more by train in the two men from France, Poles, Czechs, attempted invasion.
To speak of the Chairman of them as if they were. highly valu-years in which she has been Egyptians. Why, with all this pow- Reading' is socially
the W.VS. as 'the Dowager Lady ed and their standard of response working for the W.V.S. If there' Some of them have their own
correct, but will be accordingly high,
has been heavy bombing some- | commanders-in-chief, like Gen. er and all these possibili- oddly misleading. It would be Her office at the W.V.S, head- where, she visits the scene to see Kopanski, who is leading the
difficult to imagine a woman more
for herself how her organisation Poles. ties, has Hitler seemed inntrinsically representative of the quarters in Tothill Street is un-
Still farther south, in Kenya, months, apart; active qualities of youth
than pretentious, workmanlike, On the is working. In emergencies she
wall behind her hangs a large- has a knack of turning up at the, are the King's African, Rifles, the from scattered air attacks Stella Reading or, for that
matter, more democratic-ininded. scale map of England and Scot, right moment. When she is in her West African Defence Force and
staff know that they the Rhodesian Regiment. and merchant ship sink- she has spent most of her life land, marked out into the twelve office her at a hundred per What an Army of Free Men! ings, to be conducting working, and working hard. She civil defence regions where her, are working
administrators operate, She has cont, capacity. When she returns mainly a diplomatic of Viceregal staff for six years, when a staff of 320 workers, only 32 of after an absence, they realise that fensive in the Balkans and in 1931 she became his second whom, are paid; young and ener- they had only been putting in en in France?
wife. Two weeks, after the wedgetic women infected with her eighty, per cent, of effort. Why has he ding Lord Reading was recalled own insatiable appetite for work.
But this remarkable woman's *failed to strike some ter- from his honeymoon, to take office To hold a responsible position. secret rests more than anything in as Foreign Secretary. His wife in the W.V.S. does not mean that her curious ability both to exert rific blow somewhere? Is went back to her desk and back you must be over fifty and bristl a commanding personality and the Nazis, with their advantage. there some hidden weak-to work.
Ing with qualifications. Lady conceal it. The concealment is munication, have performed ness in Germany
Running a collective body of Reading believes in youth; in not deliberate; it grows out of her this war. the magnitude of the W.V.S. calls giving youth a chance to prove genuine interest in other people. The Navy saw parts of it shortage of some essential for exceptional, administrative and itself. The public relationer anecdote she herself tells with an sea from Britain, and other parts This quality is illustrated by an through the thousands of miles of organising powers. When that at the London W.V.S; headquarTM supply, a crack in the collective. body is composed en- ters is Mrs. Benn, twenty-saven enjoyment that has, like her of it over the long, ocean routes "collaboration" of the tirely of women, tact and per- years old,
whole and Mrs. Aitken at
sense of humour, an as- from New Zealand, Australia and sonality are even more essential. twenty-five controls the overseas
tringent quality. She was travel- | India. "new order," a failure of Lady Reading has both. She has publicity. The young people of ling by train, and a man in the Also from those countries it morale? Or does Hitler perfccted the technique of getting the W.V.S. themselves designed compartment, observing her uni-
gave protection to guns, mutton feel that he can afford to things done in the right way, by the becoming dark green uniform the subecome the Wersational on and beer; to beef from far-away
getting the right people to do which is worn with great effect the of the W.V.S.
Argentine; to petrol from the pipe wait to build up his them. By giving as much res- by all members, from Lady. Read- 'My wife's in it too,' he con-lines of Palestine and Irak; to strength still further and nonsibility to as many people as ing herself to the latest recruit fined.
warplanes and munitions direct possible. By making people real who has, performed her 69 hours 'She runs a canteen. Now, what from the U.S.A. make every last prepara-se that they have in themselves of service. They are encouraged do you do?!
Thousands of guns, thousands of tion for a smashing blow potential strength and resource, to devise their own films, showing I said Lady Reading, 'work | tanks, lorries, armoured cars went their way while Mussolini's in the Spring? Pleasant
Fleet skulked in its harbours.
Even a single Division, which owing to its Increased fire-power is substantially amallar in man- power than its 18,000 equivalent of the last war, neede at least 250. tons of provisions a day,
had been on Lord Reading's
the many sided activities of the at hendquarters.' W.V.S. There are no solemn con Ah. Secretarial?”
These
'I write letters and that kind of young women get together, hatch thing, Lady Reading admitted,
as. it would be to make lieve too much in the ferences, no. red tape. the first of these supposi Balkan bait and not tions it would be a fatal base her main plans, error for Britain to be the second
regali në tavalino)
to out an idea, give it a provocative Oh, well her companion, con- on title, like the successful fanno soled her, "that's useful work too.
is a Woman, get Lady. Reading's You can't all of you have im approval, and thon, with the as- portant jobs."'"
階
What an answer to Hitler's old lie about the disunity and degeneracy of the British Empiro!
To have put that Army there, to say nothing about its powerful Air Force, has been a feat of organ- isation for transcending anything
of short, interior, lines of com-
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