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 lust, 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.
stalemate. merely in a
But the British victories! in Africa have been so un- interrupted and sensa- 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.
In attempting to fore- see the next great move of the war, Germany re- 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 shown to be superior to that of any other nation;
SMITH YATES ON PASSAGE
OF THE AID BRITAIN BILL
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HEAD-ACHES FOR HITLER
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Lady Reading
In May 1938, when it became
apparent that women would have helping to to do their share in 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
and
war
tives of various women's organ-
nations to supply it with isations anxious to be of ser- foodstuffs
but a little vice
puzzled as to how they could set about it -
to
SQ
By- June Head
that the
Cry of
'Give us a lead, which is apt to rise only too readily in moments of crisis, is silenced by the habit of indivi- dual initiative.
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 chac acter and trust in her own judg- ment. 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 Pales- tine to southernmust Tanganyika, from
the western frontiers ví
By John Cashel
Egypt and the Sudan to eastern Cansjordan and the Red Sea is the greatest Empire Army and must diverse Foreign Legion ever known.
The cosmopolitar 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 thes 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 guns,
munitions, all the com- plicated material paraphernalia of modern mechanised war down to food and clothing, including such tropical equipment as khaki drill uniforms, pith topees and mos- 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.
There too, in this - the only theatre of war in which the horse
remaining is being used--are some of the few
regiments of horsed cavalry and the Palestine
Yeomanry.
British
Still more picturesque. across the border in British-mandated is the Frontier
What an Army
the
of Free Men!
material. Its air force is went to call on Lady Reading. still estimated to be far She is the kind of person
whom people instinctively turn in
The Under-Fifties greater in size than that emergency. She has a command- of Britain.
That There are in ing presence, a humorous eya, a
Lady Reading should! Transjordan, deep, precise voice, and the kind theory all sorts of military of energy that never expends it-
champion the cause of the under- Force of Arabs, with British om- Afties 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, O.B.E., M.C., The result of this visit was managing people without letting it isn't, after all, a question of Arab-garbed "mystery man of the an attack on Greece that in June of the same year the them know they are being mun- fairness; it all comes back to that desert," through Bulgaria, Yugo-women's organisations found aged is exercised most brilliantly intangible matter of personality. In Palestine and in Egypt
themselves incorporated in The at committee meetings. These The first impression on meeting the focal point of these Middle slavia or Italy; an attack Women's Voluntary Services for she directs as an expert conduc- her is of serenity. Yet her life is East operations also stand side on Gibraltar
the ior through Civil Defence. By October
directs his orchestra, com-made up of rapid journeys all by side with British, Dominion whole country was alive
to the pelling out of them the balance over Spain; and
the country. She spends and Colonial troops, Free French- finally, an fart of A.R.P. To-day the W.V.S. of harmony that she wants. She three days a week, touring the men and Syrians who crossed the "all-out" assault on Great is the largest organisation of its 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 en 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. the W.V.S. as 'the Dowager Ladyed and their standard of response working for the W.VS. Why, with all this pow-Reading is socially
If there . Some of them have their own correct, but will be accordingly high,
has been heavy bornbing some-commanders-in-chief, like Gen. er and all these possibili- oddly misleading. It would be Her office at the W.V.S. heart-where, she visits the scene to see Kopanski, who is leading
difficult to imagine a woman more
her organisation Poles. ties, has Hitler seemed in intrinsically representative of the quarters in Tothill Street is un- for herself how
Still farther south, in Kenya, recent months,
pretentious, workmanlike, On the is working. In emergencles she apart active qualities of youth than
wall behind her hangs a large has a knack of turning up at the are the King's African Rifles, the for - or, from scattered air attacks Stella Reading
that scale map of England and Scot- right moment. When she is in her West African Defence Force' and matter, more democratic-minded.
lund, marked out into the twelve office her staff know that they the Rhodesian Regiment. and merchant ship sink-She has spent most of her lifevil' defence regions where her are working at a hundred per ings, to be conducting working, and working hard. administrators operate. She has cent, capacity. When she returns What an answer to Hitler's old lie
had been on Lord Reading's mainly a diplomatic of Viceregal staff for six years, when whom are paid, young and ener- they had only been putting in an of the British Empire!
a staff of 320 workers, only 32 of after an absence, they realise that about the disunity and degeneracy fensive in the Balkans and in 1931 she became his second
her eighty per cent, of effort.
To have put that Army there, to wife. Two weeks after the wed-getic women infected with in France? Why has he ding Lord Reading was recalled own insatiable appetite for work. But this remarkable woman's say nothing about Its powerful Air Force, has been a feat of organ- failed to strike some ter- from his honeymoon to take office To hold a responsible position secret rests more than anything in isation for transcending anything rific blow somewhere? IS went back to her desk and back you must be over fifty and brist!-
as Foreign Secretary. His wife in the W.V.S. does not mean that her curious ability both to exert the Nazis, with thelr arivantage
a commanding personality and of short, interior lines
of com- conceal it. · The concealment. 1s there some hidden weak-to work.
ing with qualifications, Lady
munication, have performed in ness in Germany
Running a collective body of Reading believes in youth; it 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 relations office 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. headquar- supply, a crack in the collective body is composed en-
enjoyment that has, like her of it over the long ocean routes ters is Mrs. Benn, twenty-seven "collaboration" of the tirely of women, tact and per years old, and Mrs. Altken at whole sense of humour, an as- from New Zealand, Australia and "new order," a failure of Lady Reading has both. She has publicity. The young people of ling by train, and a man in the
sonality are even more essential. twenty-five controls the overseas tringent quality. She was travel morale? Or does Hitler perfected 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 form, became conversational on and beer; to beef from far-away
getting the right people to do which is worn with great effect the subject 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 Lody Read- 'My wifes in it too, he con-lines of Palestine and Irak; to strength still further and possible. By making people real who has performed her 60 hours. She runs a canteen. Now what from the U.S.A.
warplanes and munitions direct ponsibility to as many people as ing herself to the latest recruit aned. make every last prepara- so that they have in themselves of service. They are encouraged do you do?'
"Thousands of guns, thousands of
armoured 'I,' gald Lady Reading, 'work tanks, lorries, tion for a smashing blow polential strength and resource, to devise their own films, showing
the many-sided activities of the at headquarters.'
'went thoir way while Mussolini's in the Spring? Pleasant
W.V.S. There are no solemn con- Ah, Secretarial?'
Fleet skulked in its harbours. ferences, no red tape. These 'I write Jotters and that kind of. Even a single Division, which young women get together, hatch thing. Lady Reading admitted.. owing to its increased fire-power out an idea, give it a provocative Oh, well her companion cons substantially smaller in mid- on title like the successful Britannia soled her, that's useful work too. power than its 18,000 equivalent is a Woman, got Lady Reading's! You can't all of you have ime of the last iwan, nende at least 380 approval, and then, with, the as: „portant jobs.
... tons of provisiona, a daruwa
to
as it would be to make lieve too much in the 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...
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