THE CHINA MAIL, MARCH 28, 1941.
CHINA MAIL
WINDSOR HOUSE
COL. LINDBERGH
Colonel Lindbergh has been at it again, and
much more disturbingly on this occasion for the Lease and Lend Bill hasį been passed and the pur- pose of his further inter- vention can only be to at- tempt to sabotage the bid for national
unity and national effort.
+
Astoundingly, if
Co-
lonel Lindbergh is at all sincere, he refuses to draw any moral distine- tion between
regimes
which invoke a reign of violence and those which seek ways of peace and freedom. Does right or wrong make no difference to the erstwhile hero of the air as long as he thinks himself secure?
The Lindbergh case seems to deal solely with material factors in its summing up of the supposed prospects in Europe. There are moral factors, so-called impon- derables, which enter heavily into the equation. | If suffering and destitu- tion are involved in a pro- longed British drive, what, of a Nazi victory under
I SEE
NOTHING.
BRAVE LITTLE ADOLF!
Labour
cently asking for an assessment
By-
Vitality
generous fault, but one the magni- tude of the present issues makes a dangerous one. Perhaps, too, his OWII special zest for London makes him too
Harold Laski interests in tender of vested
local
the sugar-coating of a A number of American corres- "negotiated peace?" In pondents have written to me re- the occupied countries it of Labour's influence in the Chur- could be only a smoulder-chill government. That is not an easy matter to undertake. For, in ing truce, a period of the first place, much of that in- slave-labour
fluence efforts
screened is necessarily at
from the pubile view; and, in the production, and ultimate second, not a little of the essen- discovery that military tial work Labour Ministers have vitio and secure in pult is one of the half dozen supremne
accomplished-and this is parti- cation and domination cannot feed cularly true of Mr. Attlee-re-character. people.
OC-
Throughout the cupied area forces are
tain doubtless must launch some kind of an offensive, but will not have to sustain it alone. By contrast, any system which has to rely on an appeal to lawlessness and a glorification of brute force has within it the seeds of tion.
veals itself in the decisions of De- partments not directly under Labour control,
J11
determining
bad news can perturb its own destruc-phasis to te certain special cm-
But it is not beyond the mork phasis to their urgency. To them, above all, are due the great im- provements in agricultural wages,
government which need to be handled far more roughly. But my own feel- ing is clear that he is on top of his work, and that, as Minister, he its administrators this country has produced since Lord Haldane.
he
is
the
Page
Hitler's Hidden Weakness
Mr. Cordell Hull. to back his belief in the coming victory of the British Empire, has declared that the German armies are spread very thin::-It is indeed true. There are German armies in France, in Belgium, in Holland, in Norway, in Denmark, in Poland, in Hungary, in Rumania, in Italy, We do not know how many, but the total of these armies of de- cupation must be at least two mil- llon men.
The problem of victualling them is rendered easier by the fact that they batten on the conquered or intimidated territories. But they must be supplied with many things which they cannot obtain locally:
By Britannicus
transport equipment, military stores, petrol, special foodstuffs. This requires a tremendous or- ganisation of transport and sup- ply, itself a heavy crain on Ger- many's national marapower.
It is likely, moreover, that these occupying troops have to be fre- quently changed. The atmosphere of cold-shouldering or open hosti- Ilty in which they move among the subjugated or subordinate peoples is intensely demoralising. Furthermore, they are in danger, In such circumstances, of hearing the truth about the war from the British radio or other non-Nazi sources. An expeditionary force in a Lever-ridden tropical zone, where white men could not long keep their health and vigour, would not be more difficult to maintain than Hitler's garrisons in conquered countries.
of
Hitler's problems of lines communication are wholly differ- ent from those of the British Em-
pire. Our lines are like limbs- healthy, wieldable instruments of action, even if they are exposed to fracture. His are like the veins and arteries of a dropsical body.
bloated and His empire is overgrown flesh rather than bone
and muscle.
Yet we must not be deluded into underrating his summoning his forces to a parti- strength. By.
being, deploy an cular point he can, for the time centration of power.
irnmense con- Those two
tion aïe but a fraction of his total armies. Their existence does not gether an expeditionary force for prevent him from gathering to-
land or a march into yet un- an attacks on Great Britain or Ire- occupied territory in Europe.
Of the separate Ministers, Mr.
Mr. Hugh Dalton, as Minister of Attice appears least in the public Economic Warfare, has a post the view and is quite definitely the implications of which are Certain general things may be most influential. Shy, undramatic, far more narrow than when he now ready to spring into being said at once. The Labour Minis- without a trace of egotism, he undertook it before the German to throw off the yoke, Briters have a full share in all the prefers to work behind the scenes. conquest of France und the Low million or more troops of occupa-
central decisions of the War Ca- He is slow to make up his mind.
Countries. It
not binet. They have responsibility, but, once he has made it up,
easy to judge his work therefore, for the achievements. has u persistence that
since carries almost all of it is of not less than for the blunders. If great weight. His fault is an un- sarily confidential character. It is a neces- Dakar was not a Labour plan, Mr. due diffidence which tends to significant, I think, that Mr. Dal- Attlee and his colleagues accept- make him silent where speech is ton who, before the formation of ed that woeful experiment; if Mr. called for. But anyone who has the Churchill government, was the Amery's plans for India left the seen him as constantly and con-best-hated Labour member in the issue where it stood before, the tinuously in action as I have will House of Commons, has, a very Labour Ministers bear their part yield no primacy to any Minister different reputation among
It is in the more distant future, in what I think is Mr. Churchill's but Mr. Churchill himself for the Tories to-day.
when Hitler's great effort of 1941. value of the counsel main error of judgmerit,
They know that, has been repelled, and when the he has not less than Mr. Churchill him- Empire's striking power is stead!- brought to the war effort, characteristic of him that neither they know that he has the special a fatal weakness. It will be then It is self, he is out to beat Hitler; and ly growing, that they may prove him nor kind of energy the character of that the resistance of the sub- good give him undue confidence. his post He has the respect of all, and the Minister had so difficult a past to effective. Hitler
demands. No Labour 'jugated peoples will be at its most No, it is not simply that
more respect, the more initimately live down among his critics. My faced with the choice between may then be old age pensions, the treatment of he is known, Britain must win, Some the unemployed, compensation for
own judgment is that they re-withdrawing his forces from the thing very much bigger war injuries, the increases in pay Mr. Bevin was the outstanding Cognise in him a formidable mas-
scene of each national uprising to the armed forces and their de figure in the trade union world ter of the art he requires for his and sending still more soldiers to than Britain or America pendents. Without Mr. Bevin's when he became Minister of La-
function.
hold it down, That would be a must win the tremendous powerful aid, it is, I think, cer-bour. He has done some admir-
choice between conserving his tain that industrial relations able work there, Above all, he The outstanding fact about the strength at the expense of his struggle now going on, would have been far less smooth has given the trade unions the Labour Ministers is the fullness prestige and conserving his prese There must be a victory than they have been, and it is status that was their due, in the of their unity and collaboration tige at the expense of his strength. won, in the interests of all above all because the workers councils of the government, and with the Prime Minister. Partly, It would be the beginning of the
have such confidence in their re- he has seen to it with the know that is the depth of the common end. the world, for the idea of presentatives that the phenomenal ledge born of long experience,
danger they have confronted; increases in war output have taken that the standards of labour are partly, it is the wisdom of Mr. The iron ring of British world. freedom under law, of place, It is an open secret that not relaxed, at any point where Churchill in paying great atten-power is slowly closing upon the security from aggression, the administration of the very danger to the workers: health is tion to their views in those fields Nazis. Inside is still another ring of adjustment by peaceful interned allens has excently me dozen experiments of importance, ledge. Critics ask, in bewilderment the inner kernel of Hitlerism when difficult problems connected with involved: He has initiated half a of which they have special know immobile now but ready to crush proved since Mr. Herbert Morrl-His public utterances have given how Socialists can agree so well the ripe moment comes. It is com son became Home Secretary, and him perhaps the widest audience with a Prime Minister who, all posed of the imprisoned peoples of he, and his vivid Assistant Secre of any Minister except Mr. Chur- his life, has been their ardent op- Europe who will one day turn bagun, at least to tackle the shale when the lines of reconstruction answer to this view. Mr. Chur Nazis, learn with sickening clarity tary, Miss Ellen Wilkinson, have chill; and it is already clear, that potent, There is a very simple upon their gaolers. Then will the had failed. There was ter problem (they have not yet begin to be luid, Mr. Bevin will chill's, one aim is victory, and to that a prison-house can entom then no indication that solved it) with energy, and im count as vitally as anyone on the it he is prepared to sacrifice, all its own creators.
agination. These next weeks wiil | Labour side,
the preconceptions of his past the limitation that kept bring forth an official statement
career. The one thing he asks. of Mr. Morrison, after a humans on the ground its war aims of the first impor period at the Ministry of Supply butes to victory.
from the British government on
brief any proposal is what it contrider's Judgment of persons, and would ever be overcome. tance; und If is again an open where he did a Herculean job of
in his grasp of the large aspects of strategy. He has filled a vital Colonel Lindbergh sees especially Mr, Attlee, have had a think the task to which he is tion of Mr. A. V. Alexander, the
secret that Labour Ministers, and reorganisation, has now found, I I have loft to the last the post-role with delicacy and vigour. "no indication that war
All-th-all, the position is not ideally suited both by tempera- First Lord of the Admiralty. -unsatisfactory. The great-tests-of is a thing of the past."
ment and experience. Mr. Mor- Since Mr. Churchill is himself course, have still to come, when rison touches nothing that he does Minister of Defence, and the the problems of peace and recon work. He is clear-headed, in- times, it is inevitable, that Mr. face of immense peril, Men Cou not inake clearly his own hand- greatest First Lord of modern struction begin to loom, In the disive, and works with an energy Alexander should to some extent chill has taught his colleagues to that is remarkable. If he has a be overshadowed by his greater work with a single mind to vic- fault, it is that often excessive colleague. But the Navy has great tory. That in itself, is a vital ser- tenderne for his own officials, alcohadence both in Mr. Alexan- vice to the future of civilisation..
means.
There was a time when every attempt at flying
Yet the organisation of If no one had tried to fly justice in nations has or if no one had tried to made the medieval feudal establish a reign of law- wars a thing of the past well, what?
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