Friday,
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
- torgs Whitely
January 26, 1940.
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Hongkong Telegraph.
Friday, January 26, 1940.
Wyndhamn St, Hongkong Telephone: 20015
the
The prefx Special to the Telegraph" i used by the "Hongkong Telegraph" to Indicate nows which is strictly copyright under in provisions of the Telecommuni- entions Ordinance, 1936. Such news a bear the indication "U" is received in Hongkong on the date of publication by the United Press Associations, who re serts all fights and forbid republication. either wholly or in part without previous Arrigerent.
War and Culture ONE of the worst features of
modern war and modern in ternational rivalry is that na- tions are made to suffer in mind as well as in body,
For totalitarian war imitates the totalitarian State and des- troys or tries to destroy every- thing that can keep memory and Imagination alive.
A few months ago the Ger- mans wreaked their anger on the most ancient of the Czech universities: a university that had been respected even in the most bitter phases of the quarrel between Czech and Ger- man as the home of Czech cul-
ture.
They have now dismantled the interior of Belvedere Palace
at Warsaw, the museum in which Pilsudski's memory was cherished, turning the chapel in- to a music-room.
The Lithuanian Government, following this bád example, has closed the Polish University at Vilnu, a university established in the sixteenth century.
The racial rivalries of Eastern Europe and the Balkans have been seen at their worst in the parsecutions of language, 10- ligion, and university, and now the most powerful State in Cen- tral Europe is making savage" intolerance in this form the basis of its policy,
Yet this Power thinks that it is fitted for the hegemony of Europe.
In view of the shortage of soap
in Germany, which is likely to cause a renewed wave of moustache-growing, Hitler--
will doubtless inaugurata this new fashion-
THE SWASTICKLE
Stalin
To
Would Like
Forget
TANNENBERG
T was at Tannenberg, in the last week of August, 1914, that the efficiency of the Great Russian Steam
Roller was first exploded by
the Germans with a disas- trous bang which has not yet ceased to echo..
The real truth-happily for the Allies-reached the world slowly in 1914. It still makes gruesome reading. Tannenberg was, in short, less of a victory for Germany than it was an overwhelming defeat for the Russian fighting machine.
The Russian debacle in Finland was described by Webb Miller, “United Press" War Correspondent, yesterday as the greatest Russian debacle since Tannenberg. Tannenberg was not much
a victory for German
80
arms
sticky August. Railways in Po-- land were few and far between Russians have never yet manag- perhaps now that they have
-as they are to this day. The
ed to run a railway properly, and
taken to the air-never will.
Ammunition and food began to run out, and Samsonov's re-' connaissance work was deplor- able.
Twenty-five years ago this
as an overwhelming defeat for the morning Samsonov knew so little
Russian fighting machine.
Indeed, the-story-of-those fow-automatically-righted the things August days of 25 years ago that Prittwitz had left undone.
illustrates perfectly the curious But the Russian debacle had
feckless strain in the Russian already started. nature.
Brilliant Ludendorff
THE years before the war the plans for un attack of East Prussia had been carefully laid. Two Russian armies were to march against the Germans north and south of a line of marshy lakes. The princi- pal army was led by one Samsonov.
It was typical of the Russians you see the same thing happen- ing in Finland to-day that Sam- sonov knew nothing of the army he had to command, knew nothing of the staff given him, and had been hauled back from the Caucasus to supervise an attack which should have been carefully rehearsed by the man in charge.
The other Russian commander was Rennenkampf, and his army was at first so successful that the German General Prittwitz funk- ed an engagement and was promptly superseded. This was on August 21.
Whereupon the German High Command at Coblenz, on the other side of Europe, were rather up a tree. They detached a brilliant tactician called Ludon- dorff, packed him into a special northbound train, and then look- ed around for some senior officer to command the East Prussian troops.
Someone suggested the name of Hindenburg, a 68-years-old general pottering around Han over in civilian clothes, for he hid retired in 1911.
Ludendorff's train stopped at Hanover long enough to take Hindenburg on board, and off they went.
The contrast between the be- haviour of Nazi Germany to Czech universities and that of the Republic of Czecho-Slovakia to German universities shows
The Russian Debacle how sadly the standard of civilised government must do- THEY were luckier than cline wherever Germany spreads the time they reached East poor Samsonov. By
Prussia the Gorman staff had
hor rule.
of the whereabouts of Rennen-- kampf's other Russian army that he firmly believed that the pincer-like movement was in progress. Actually, he was hour- Samsonov's big and..cumber-y-drawing-farther away from some army had been marching Rennenkampf! The pincer was about the Polish plains for a opening, not closing. fortnight. It was hot and
PLEASE Turn To Page 9.
Now a word
about the French..
•T is one of the ironies of this very odd war that we know more of the character of our present enemies thari of our present allies.
Bo I thought that a few words about the French might come in handy, especially as quite a num- ber of you may have to share a trench with them sometime.
The French, being a democratic nation with the not-easy-to-live- up-to motto. "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity (you and that in- scribed on the money when you get to France), are not so con- veniently to be divided into classes as, for instance, the Germans.
To the average Englishman, Indeed, there is only one class of Frenchman at all. He wears a tall silk hat, a little pointed beard, punctuates his wild ges. ticulations with witty little remarka Uke "Zut alors!" and "Heln?", and spends the greater part of his 10 glorifying La Femme (English: Tha Woman).
The day he passes, seated in a café, reading "rinkay" magazines; the night, he devotes to unspeakable revelry, which is saved being thought " wicked " by the Frenchman's characteristic charm, wit and "naughtiness."
In fact, however, this typical French- man has only over existed in English comic papers, so that the real French- man may prove something of a disap- pointment when you meet him,
BY SPIKE HUGHES
prove of those who don't, they are too. good mannered to say so.
From this class come the French Civil servants and shopkeepers,
The shopkeepers you will find par ticularly friendly and willing to pass the time of day, but do remember to say "Bon Jour" when you enter the shop, and “Au revoir ́” when you leave. It auggests that your shopping la also a social pleasure.
Little courtesies like this on your part will work wonders, and 1” the shopkeeper hasn't got what you want ho will be only too pleased to tell you wilero you can get it. He may oven send somebody to get it for you if he sees that you're a stranger in those parta
T
Civil servant, or
small-time official clas
of Frenchman, appears somewhat inhumanly bureaucratio at dret; but a smile, a little tact and pallenco will reveal that he is an indi- vidual with a sense of humour and a genuine desire to be helpful.
Bince French mobilation, of course, It will not be so easy to distinguish one class from another, but I doubt it even a uniform will completely disguise the Young Blood.
This class of young man has a streak of the gigolo in him. In penco timo ka drives around in a gaily coloured car, the | HARM and" wit
dresses with rather exaggerated chic, French most certainlyamokes American cigarettes and takes have, and for all their a passionate interest in le sport and le jars hot.
C
auperficial excitability they are per haps the most tolerable of all races.
He is A Bit of A One for les pirit,
If you are patient with thơm thay. and will tell you with pride and some will do almost anything for you; and · detail of his alleged conquests. You, as more than that if you show any fond...... a guest in his country, will of course ness for their children,
The backbone of the French nation, is the bourgvolalo. Thrifty and well. fed, thess are easily recognised by the
· fast that on the hottal simmer fun- day nothing will Induce them to ap- pear in pubila, except in their best clothes. They take to a little aer ously, and, though they may disap-
listen with interest and appear im- pressed. By doing so you will help the Frenchman to maintain what he thinks in his reputation among the Engllab
Iis will probably put water in vintage claret, but as it's the wine of his, country don't appear to shocked,
Then you will come serosa the pro-
–
fessional French soldier, He is a cul- tured, unaggressive person yhe poes about his job with a remarkable incic of fuss and bother. He has no particular- political views. hates wor, loves his country passionately, and in thoroughly good company.
If anything goes wrong he more ikely to laugh than not Like the French pilot who hit the top of a bedge- taking-off in his plane and crashed.. Ho got out of a severely buckled machine, scratched bals head and re- that funny! marked: "Well, iara't Exactly the same thing happened yes- Lurday."
A class apart in France are the mechanics, They wear berets and white boiler suita, and in spite of a deal of excited discussion and argu- ment will tear an engine to pieces and put it back better than when it left.. the factory. They are probably the best mechanich in the world.
French children are not much dif- ferent from other children, except that while you are struggling with your Irugo's, they seem to have no difcuity in speaking French at all.
They are apt to beg and run after you in the streets until they get some- thing out of you; but if you find. them really – tiresom the Hatson. officer will, on application, supply you with one or two magle phrases. to disperse them. But don't be too harah; they may be the allies of to- morrow.
ABTLY, there is the homme de la rus. Ho's. very much like the rest
of us men-in-the-street in`any divilized. country, Ho reserves the right to thinke and say what ho likes. Ho enjoys poll- tidal argument, makes indelicate jokes at the expense of the Goverment, the censorship, the bachelor's tax and the bonus for large famlites.
When a crisis arises, however, he bo- domes deadly and grimly calm. Biptera her a year ago he behaved so quietly, and determinedly that I wondered, watching him, why aarig, frold wie augss posed to be exclusively an English virtue.
One thing only will bring the blood rushing to his checks; the mention of **Itlairo."