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THE CHINA MAIL, JUNE 10, 1941
CHINA MAIL
WINDSOR HOUSE
POLITICAL SHIBBOLETHS
The war has already lasted long enough to produce in Great Britain some profound changes of thought about politics. Much that seemed important before the war has dwindled into com- parative insignificance. Values are altered; con- ventional party
all-
catch.
words drop into disuse; glib generalisations yield to the necessity of action. Words which once set parties to quarrelling have ceased to charm or to antagonise.
One such word is "soc- ialism." The war has rob- bed the word of both its fascination and its ter- rors. A war Government has
rushed through a "social revolution" at a quicker pace than had been dreamed of by the Socialist Sir Stafford Cripps in his most revolu- tionary moments. In every sphere of social life Con- servative ministers, not less eagerly than Social- ist, by a wave of the de- partmental wand, have taken drastic measures that once would have been
N.E.I.
INDEPENDENCE
TWE
PACIFIC
STATUS QUO
45 AXIS
NEW ORDER OF
EAST ASIA
MANNEQUIN : * FORCE MAJEURE.”
Everyone Should Read It....
condemned as "socialist." Mr. John Masefield, Q.M., is the was the added risk of attack from for at the time some waiting on
and This is no argument for Poet Laureate. He is the author of submarines motor-torpedo, the Beaches must have asked each
poems and plays and several fas- boats.
other why they did not see any or against the socialist cinating romances and tales both He goes on to say: "These were of our aeroplanes. They did not method. This wartime ex-in prose and verse. His slim voi- some of the complications which realise then how much of their ume called "The Nine Days Won- war gave to the problem. The final escape was owing to the perience simply shows
der" was compiled from talks greatest complications were the way the German bombers were that socialism is not an with many officers, sailors and war itself...No man knew what kept back. Then read of the des- end-all or be-all in itself, the Ministries about the rescue next few days and each of the sweepers, the drifters, the mer- airmen, and from various records the situation would be within the troyers, the steamships, the mine- but is simply a method of of the Bri ish Army from Dunkirk, then allies wanted different things chant vessels read of them all getting things done. It has shown that it is the things done that matter, the method being Socialist or otherwise
My heart swells when I try to
at once."
The British were wanted on the Belgian right flank, and on the French right flank and
"we
write a short review of this little book telling of the rescue of our army from the Dunkirk beaches. It is a tale told with the utmost wanted them to fall back quickly simplicity, and there is not a line
rhetoric, according to of
but it profoundly moves the spirit. the time and the circum- Everyone in Great Britain and stances often the only in America should read it: every European who is counting on method in wartime, Britain's fortitude and valour in whereas it may be one of the present struggle should clam-
our for a translation into their tongue. For it is a great story, and told by a poet, a
two alternative methods own in peacetime.
∙on
from Dunkirk with such
lines without hot tears.
By Edith Lyttelton
crowding into the channel, steam- ing, sailing, rowing all day and all night.
MORE INTERE
Hundreds
"Most of the embarkations had to be done by small ships, because only these could lie near the shore or enter the channel at low water. All ships coming near to the coast were bombed. A bomb bursting near a small ship always disarranged or broke some of her gear. The losses in men were very great; in ships severe, and in boats enormous. Those ordering this adventure in Dover had dally romance-writer and a passionate to end the very dangerous situa- to replace men and repair or Undoubtedly when the lover of the sea, its ships and ton in which they stood; but both replace ships; for probably no war is over the strong seamen-John Masefield, the Poet being on their native soil, wished ship returned from the beach
Laureate. I fancy that what has to stay where they were."
undamaged. The minds hand of the State will re-enabled him to tell the tale of the
which He continues: “When the opera- improvised this service had to lax its pressure, and pri- rescue of more than 300,000 men tive Dynamo began, it was be prepared for great losses.... vate enterprise will
stark thought that only a few thousand Nothing but enormous, heroic re-restraint, is that he has unpacked could be saved." All through industry and utter self-sacrifice sume its activity. But the his heart in one poem at the end the nine days our aeroplanes and kept the ships steadily plying to of his preface and four at the end their young pilots fought back the and fro. They needed an in- perspective will have al- of his narrative. I do not class German bombers over and over credible number of rafts, ladders, tered. British Socialists them as the greatest poetry, but again. On land the rearguard brows, lifebuoys and grasslines I do admit that, with the marvel- action so heroically fought had ...Many thousands of the men can never again believe lous story still in my mind, I can- staved off the disaster so that at brought were wounded. These that mere Socialism will not even now read some of the one moment there seemed to be a had to have instant attention bring the
hope that the whole B.E.F. might' and special removal, millennium;
be saved. "But on the fifth day, of the dead had to landed to be Conservatives,
the Appalling Operations
when special effort was being, buried." other hand, now convert- The book calls "May 26th to
made to lift the rearguard ed to the idea of national wonder," for in that time. 316,663 celled so that the French might June 3rd 1949" the "Nine Days the whole arrangement was can- planning, will never have soldiers were rescued from the be brought to England instead. Read, too, ofthe individual efforts. Mr. Smith, în a motor, the old dread of State them being French.
beaches of Dunkirk, 123,095 of
Masefield Thoughtful French boat with a crew of two who had control in all circumstan-describes the appalling nature of
never been to sea before, ferried "The the operation; the difficulty of
French soldiers took about 800 men to two Dutchy cès.
finding and
sending shipping longer to embark than ours; they skoots. Commander 'Cloustóli, Both sides have discov- "forty-odd miles, to embark over never liked to embark save as RN, who lost his life alter three hundred thousand men, complete units," said one obser- doing noble service on the jetty ered that privilege must within a fortnight, from one beach ver, and it is good to record the at Dunkirk “under - fearful be modified, whether it is and one jetty and bring them remark of another: They were conditions of strain and danger
back the forty-add miles,' those extraordinarily thoughtful, often Read of Coulthard and Evans the special privilege of the miles. continually attacked from we could not get them to share who plugged a hole in their ship capitalist or the trade the air; there was great danger our rations, as they thought that with all the bells they could find from magnetle mines, floating we were short of food." Ah When the leak was checked. "Mr unionist. Social welfare mines and moored mines, there read the whole story it only Evans stood up to the can be the only criterion
covers 65 -pages of a small book; water, holding open/a Bilge read of the air battles. The enemy while Mr. Coulthard kept of successful policy. The people" but "in the inter- had the might, no doubt of that, pumps going. stock of the word "demo-ests of the people." In he had the target of his dreams,
gone up in this sense of the term it is or a flight of three alsmen taking story will be told cracy has
Long centuries proportion as that of the democracy rather than on fifty seventy-five of the Ger
man bombers; how one British English lips, word "socialism” has gone socialism which will pre- pilot met a formation of forty to Of courage god-like and down, "demotracy" 'meen- sent the political chal. fifty, attacked them single-handed hearts of gold
and split them up. It is right that Off Duniquerque beaches ing not only rule by the lenge of the future.
these feats' should be recorded
and the prize of a century." Head
Courage God-Like
"Through th