PAGE 4.-HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
Continuing the remarkable BANSE Revelations
another BELOW is pertinent extract from "Raum Und Volk Im Welktricge", the indis- creet publication by Pro fossor Ewald Banse, Nazi professor of military science a't Brunswick Technical College, who is recognized to-day as the _strategist______upon whose
- theories Nazi action is based.
•
military
Banse is the successor of General Schlieffen, who prepared the plans for the German invasion of France through Belgium in the last war. As such, what he has to say is a clue to Nazi thought and, possibly, Nazi action.
.
In previous chapters, Bante wrote of the methods_Germany should employ in invading Hol. land and Belgium, and the reasons why such inva- sions would have to be car- ried out by Hitler.
To-day, he writes of the other German dream-the invasion of England.
ENGLAND'S
position just-off-the-middle of the west coast of Europe makes her the natural gate keeper and overseer of the French, Belgian, Dutch, German, Danish and Norwegian coasts and of the seas which wash them, the Channel and the This explains the Changing North Sea.
As
face of British history. long as the Atlantic coast was Europe's rear, England was doomed to comparative in- significance; it was, in fact, an unpretentious land of pen- sants and shepherds, which exported wool and imported manufactured goods, and not in its own ships either.
But once the crossing of the Atlantic and the discovery and settlement of its further Ameri- can shore hid made Europe's west coast her main front, it de- pended entirely on the capacity of the British people whether the sudden change in their position. which was now extraordinarily advantageous from the commer- cial point of view, would result in-the-development of overseas trade and in politicni-expansion: or not.
The British proved equal to . their opportunities; they are an
ambitious race and carry
oul
their projects with immense energy and unfailing success.
4
Since the end of the 16th century they have reached out across the colonial ocean and built up empire, which has endowed them with immense resources in the shape of raw materials for their industry and food stuffs for their population.
on
How Hitler would
INVADE
And I 1846 they took the step. so fraught with consequences for their security, of ruining their own agriculture by the introduction of free trade, which placed the nation's
n's food supply in dependence on imports from overseas and, on gave a great the other hand,
to Industry. England can Limpetus scarcely survive for a month on her home production; in the event of war, therefore, she is faced with, starvation unless abe can import foodstuffs or has hoarded inmense stocks,
Superiority
At Sea Even from this
short survey facts Energs certain important regarding England's position In matters of national defence. Her situation as an island just off the Atlantic coast of Europé enabler her to keep an eye on it and in the Chan- particular to watch over
nel
I and the North Sea; it gives her, in addition, a military security. enjoyed by no other country of Europe.
Her economic dependence on her own, but distant empire, which proceeds from this sense of secu rity, is only made-fensible-by-her- possession of a big merchant lesi
a navy superior to all others. and
This fact alone makes England the sworn foe of any power which aims at possessing.......an equally largo fleet. In her case, therefore, the security of the State bound maritime up with undisturbed trade and a strong navy nono el is possible without the theso
Name:
Patie
Teristy A Chaik Shortest crossing for un invading force. Seed
Jura
and
1/8000000
Scarpe
Natural forward-basen nod Libes of advance
Principal industrial areas and centens of population.
From the military point of view England's Beld of action lles out- side her coast line so long as no enemy has crossed the lutter. This means that England's European theatre of war lles on the sea or even on one of its further coasts, from Jutland to the Gironde, to begin with and perhaps subsc- quently on the neighbouring Island of Ireland.
Approach From
The Sea
Thursday, MAY 16, 1940.
PEPSODENT
› TOOTH PASTE
and POWDER
CONTAIN IRIUM
FOR GREATER CLEANSING POWER
ENGLAND NY.K.
capable of being put to military uses and further strengthened by various rivers.
Besides the Thames valley, south castern Englind contains one other. low lying area, namely, the broad blunt peninsula formed by Norfolk and Suffelk, a rekitively sparsely populated agricultural district.
This region is so noticeably cut clf from the rest of England, in- cluding even the south east, by the Wash and its inland extension, the Fens (once a swamp, now convert- ed into marshland), by the lower Thames, and by various other rivers, that it is necessarily of the greatest Interest to any invading army.
Great Britaira is easily approach- ed from the sea owing to its many bays and short but deep rivers nor does its interior, apart from Scot- land and Wales, present many obstacles to communication. Even the Pennine Chain in the north of England forms no barrier, being of raised plateau merely a sart
with sheen covered
runs. In general there are three main densely populated indu
industrial (und the main shipping) areas:-(1) axic-tree running right across the south of England from London to Cardiff, with its centre of gravity in the vast London area; (2) the Midlands, an area bounded roughly oining Liverpool, Bir- by a line joining
and Leeds and mingham, Hull, containing rich deposits of coal and iron; the Midlands are the sent of the
principal heavy, smelting and Lextile Industries of the
The English country, contain a considerable proportion of its population, and are respon- sible for most of its foreign trade; (3) the small lowland area in the ith its caal centre of Scotland, and other industries, which con and fron deposits, its shipbuilding tains Glasgow and Edinburgh and almost the whole population of Scotland,
In fact, the Great Ouse which flows into the Wash, and a num- ber of streams flowing into the Blackwater esimary which are only separated from the source of the use by a few miles, make the poniasula into a regular island, which provides an invad- ing army with safe and roomy
which quarters from threaten London, which is quite close and without natural de- fences on that side, and also the industrial Midlands no! tar away.
The remainder of the foland is a good deal zore sparsely popu. lated and is of no great importance for the economie life of the coun- try, which is, in this
case,
the country.
I follows that any, hostile threat or actual Invasion must be at one of these three areas, and if posible against the most important one, the Mid- lands, which are also the prin- olpal centre for, the manufacture of arms.
mime
The south east of England also deserves special attention, as it is
things from the Con
other ructure falls to pieces.
whole
Its two main pillars: are the navy, and, of course, the un awerving delermination of the
hk 1,
tinent and, as the seat of the capital, is of paramount Impor- tance politically.
South-eastern England forms the northern ex- tremity of the Paris basin, though, of course, now separated from it
English And
The Scots
can
the
nation-and same applies in general to the Scots, the Mediterranean, Gaelic- -speaking element being very small and uninfluential-was originally a and compound of Lower Saxon
emigrants; later on it the
sway of a Norman per class, which introduced the upper French language as well as Nor- wegian blood, so that modern Eng- lish is a set of old Low German with Latin additions.
Norwegian
are the
The small differences between the English and the Scots chiefly to be explained by absence of the..
e...Norman clement. far which never penetrated so north and left the Scols in A sense more German. Racially the. British Isles belong to the Nordic but in England some of the Mediter ranean blood of the earlier in- habitants still peralats; it. mani- fests itself in the comparative, and In recent years increasing. fre- quency of dark hair. Wales and Ireland are its homes.
The
group,
Anglo-Scottial national
of land at home or sa power and colonies abroad.
This is accompanied by a certain slowness, which clings to the-old- us long as it can be made to work somehow and is very unwilling to alter Its ways or develop; prefer- ring to surround itself with an ex- traordinary hotch-potch of the most modern Inventions and the most anclent traditions.
But the most marked feature of all is the incredible tenacity with which the English, once they have adopted an objective. never let it out of sight for a mament, and use absolutely any means of getting to without the slightest compunction.
The main object of an English boy's education is nel, as it is of a German boy's, to stuff u maxi- mum amount of knowledge into him, but (a) to harden him, to give him
elf conadent resolute,
A
character
the individ (b) to Incorporate.
nation, rule the
In the great British which God has called to
world
This produces an admirable type of humanity in so far as it com bines free manhood with complete incorporation in the stale and so
ely, st
that the government can on popular support at
at any rate in all questions of foreign policy. The
German Individualism, The old which among the Germans penet- rates and (from the public point view) vitiates everything, has been overlaid and transformed in Great Britain by the strict Norman discipline, till it has come to form n politically lable_quantity.
rellable
of
80
In matters of culture this is, of course, a limitation, so much indeed that a wearisome, If in it-
beautiful,
descends sameness
Self
on everything, in life as in thought. It should be noted that in the Scotsman the individual element
is more
ore strongly esprit de corps, less strongly developed than in the Engilshman, whereas his outlook in even more materialistic by a long hrde way; bence Scols meanness become the subject of innumer- able jokes and stories in England.
There is one other highly signi- ficant trait, which springs from the bedrock of this character, namely, hypocrisy.
Behind a cold and self-controlled exterior the Englishman conceals a distinctly fiery nature which trics to conceal its true features and has gradually learnt how to let an in- ner reality, which but too often has good reason to shun the light of day, run riot beneath a well preserved facade. National
Even
Solidarity
Let us now attempt to evaluate the character we have sketched above from the point of view of milltary psychology,
The English probably surpass ven- the French national soll- darity, particularly as they are free from the latter sceptician; withs them a rational grasp of the fact that the existence of Britain is at stake fulfils the same function as the Frenchman's faculty of- quick enthusiasm,
The English nation pursues vital aims with bulldog pertinacity and will never let ils enemy go till it has lold him low; this it' has. usually succeeded in doing, from the Spanish Armada to Napoleon and on to Versailles
The individual "English","soldier" also shows the same steady, if slow, determination; in the hundred days bailla in Flanders in the summer of 1917 he was the mainstay of the Allica, who were beginning to weaken under the combined strala of the Russian collapse, the mutiny
In the French army, the failure of Italy, and the fury of our un- restricted U-boat warfare.
The Englishman's type of hero- is passive rather than active; he remains colm in the face of danger, but he does not leap wildly into the fray; he prefers to explore and then to strike a mnahing
low lighting para
character is in all ossenilafs · that of the Lower Saxon prašnt, -only impoverished by less favourable agrarion conditions'@
Thelith: people shot of by the curving_in_of_the_Chinnel. Umited by an inam and further the enemy's weak sido carefully.
military The that for England-the-navy-is as more
important than thời army.
If the worst comes to the wors the navy has (as happened in the world, war) to procure for the fidi. English, Cootre behind theirsek the necessary Ume to raise
The
situation Hence we find great capacity for work and great circumspection. very materialistic, attitude to the things of this life, combined with clear foresight; and an egotistical lust for power which seeks to grab everything for itself, be it a piece
་
-
shake hands with
him, perhaps even to feel pity for him; but be- fare that stage" is reached, they will stick at nothing, from slander to starvation and from bare tists to tanks, and they spare nothing and nobody belonging to the enemy. neither: combatants nor women nor oven children.
The English nation always thinks in whales; what it sees
the enemy is not the individual soldier but the nation plus its entire en- vironment, including the physient aspect of the country, its economic lite even its good name.
• good for the-first-
andellot
people to adopt this new altitude, which they have put into practice in countless colonial - compaigns as well as in the Great War, and they have thereby created a new conception of war and one that has come to stay.
,'
Henceforward, war is no longer a crossing of words with the enemy, as it used to be, but the milliary, economic, psychological
and moral destruction and exter- mination of the enemy nation.
Ang
PEPSODEN
LINE
IMMINENT SAILINGS
*PASSENGER AND FREIGHT
SHANGHA I, JAPAN,
| SYDNEY, MELBOURNE,
vis MANILA and Way Ports JAPAN
LIVERPOOL,
via SINGAPORE, BOMBAY, MARSEILLES, (CASA- „BLANCA),_otc...........
Shanghai, Japan HONOLU LU, SAN FRANCISCO, LOS ANGELES
VANCOUVER and SEATTLE
FREIGHT ONLY
LONDON vla Port Said, MARSEILLES, GIBRALTAR,
(CASABLANCA), etc.
CALCUTTA
It was England who instituted the war of starvation, the war of econ
NEW YORK via JAPAN," omic annihilation-and-the-war-of-LOS ANGELES & PANAMATM lies alongside the war of armies and scored with them.
resounding success
One does not know whether to be horrified at the vileness, or to ad- mire the clear-headed logic and unshakeable iron determination which this reveals; the latter at- titude will probably carry a nation with its eye on its future further.
No Military
Talent
The oggresive spirit' is not high- ly developed in the English, nor have they ever shown much talent for military operations on a forge scale.
Their slowness at the Marne, where the English army might have landed the German right in queer street by a rapid and resolute thrust between the First and Second Ger- man armies, mys enough,
in
On the other hand we may" in- stance as typical British performa- ances: (1) their exhibition of en- durance in Flanders
1017. aiready referred to; and (2) their extremely
methodical
advance the Sinal Judiciously bul
across
planned and
Kitchener's
which, was not boldly like carried out; expedition against
the Mahdi in Nubla, it was made to depend on the construction
of a
water, in this case; of
supply-system-too, which in both cases brought the British slowly and unheroically but surely to-their goul.
In the free use of mobile masses in open country, and in the rapid following up of an initial tactical till is assumes strategic proportions, English generals have Usually failed,
Juccess
The individual soldier in the field is not expected to overwork :imself either; he is treated like a gentleman, who cannot get on without comfort and well belog: the small extent to which the whet expectedly successful tank attack at Cambral in November, 1917. was followed up is proof enough.
The British soldier, of whatever rank, always
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Jurassic hills, before it is forced back step by step.
ex-
But it is questionable whether the English could face starvation. Physically they have been tremely pampered for centurles and would find it very hard to adjust themselves to real priva- tion (such as they never ex- perienced during the War in spite of food cards).
Some of them would no doubt patriolically endure even that, but others might. throw up the game, which would have ceased to be one for them. Sooner.
We confess that It gives us pleasure to meditate on the des- truction that must sooner or later overtake this proud and seemingly Invincible nation, and to think that this country, which was last conquered in 1080, will once more obey foreign master or at any rale liave to
its rich resign colonial empire. The above sen
sentences would ap pear monstrous, nay, rank blas- phemy, to overy Englishman and. Englishwoman. In the world—
if they ever saw them...
The Position
Of Ireland
Ireland's function is merely to back up the main operations which would take place in the east of Eng- land. Only in the last named case, would Ireland acquire importance-- indeed, great and decisive import- ance. The English commander is to find difficulty in mani-
likely considerable army
оп
two fronts in the over-populated
warren of rabbit
the industrial
Midlands. does just as much as he thinks necessary to preserve the Empire, and no more "the Em- pire" meaning ecenfort and security for the English at Home; martial glory meant nothing to him.
Whatever the Englishman is do- ing, he never loses aight of his ob- Jective once he is convinced that It is the right one, never (as the German sometimes does), confuses the means with the need.
„England's navni strategy in the North' Sea, which kept the battle fleet in the northern harbours, was no rizki as it was unheroic; why riak the precious deet, the bulwark of England's world power and of her domestle security, 1 the object of the War, the des traction of Germany, could be achieved in an easier and less
fashion? dangerous
It was the clear realisation of the of the War, namely, the in- the des- object fruction of Germany .. in terests of England's future security terests
especially after unrestricted sub- marine warfare had shown how very real the danger, was--which was the source of the material and moral strength with which the English people endured the unex pected hardships of the long strug- gle, among which compulsory mili- tary service, with its inroads on Individual liberty, was no doubt much more keenly felt than the (by: no means severe) rationing. ....
The unrestricted submarine war fare which stiffened England's back broke Guri, in saying which we must not forget that the latter had previously been subjected to very much the greater strain. Reaction To
An Invasion
It is very important to make up our minds how the English charac ter may be expected to react to hostile invasion.
Moreover, English war industry, which has its chief centres in this. particular aren, would not be able to support an army of millions concentrated in this narrow space and keep it supplied with munl tions.
Inside Ireland itself special at- tention needs to be paid to Ulster, which would have to be con- quered or hermetically sealed up at the same time as the Invasion af the northern Midlands took place.
most benefit from an Irish In- vasion of the latter.
When we consider the - won- ders we did achieve · and the trouble we spent on less essenilal objectives, we are forced to the conclusion that our fallurs to sccupy Holland and attempt ‘a landing on the other side of the Channel in the last war was'n, Krave error.
Till the beginning of 1916 the we know now, assumed English, that we should be able to lundi 100,000 men, as the Grand Fleet could not get into action within less than 24 hours of the trans
They were ports being sighted. here thinking of a force eaning from Germany. So that we may assume that we could have got 250,000 men across from the Bel- glan and Dutch
coast before the Grand Fleet could interfere. The of the Grand Ouse to the
the west of Norfolk and Suffolk is some 80 miles long: It would not have been very
strongly held with 250,000 men, but sufficiently strongly to. cope with Eniglah home delenco troops.
Crossing
The Channel
To get an army across the Channel to the Kent, cost should prove a relatively simple business, particularly if the attacker is In possession of the French Channel of Dunkirk, Calais and Bou-. ports logne, from which he can clear the Channel of English
with ships artillery, the shortest son passage
miles between the ten
or so of
French
const from Cape Griz-Nez to Sangatte and Dover being only 21 miles.
During the world war there were two opportune moments for a German landing: the fist in 1019 or the beginning of 1915. when the English army at home was still small and untrained; and the second in the spring of 1917, when
unrestricted subrabrine Warfare started..
At that time the British higlier command belleved that if U-boat warfare failed, Germany would be bound either to attempt an in- vasion of England at the cost of her feet, if need be or sur for peace.
RHAL the cost of
of her finet In that not eloquent of an inex haustible energy, an iron diler- mination to reach the
Joal, which we lacked? only.
The cautious behaviour of
of our High Seas feet did at least one
If conquered, it might be used as a starting point for an attack) on the densely populated Glasgow district of Scotland, which is quite. close and of great importance from the point of view of war Industry;
attack were even if such
carried out by a small force, it would have the effect of keeping considerable portions of the Eng- Hal army busy up in the north, unill a decision was renched fur
mouthwater
ther Bou
The coast-line of Great Britain and Ireland extends
over about 6,675 miles, but as long as the
Grand Fleet-is-functioning there. are only two places worth con sidering for a hostile landing-the brbad East
Anglian peninsula, protected on the flanks by the Wash and the estuary of the Thames, which lends itself well to defence; and the peninsula of Kent, The and Sussex, lying between Thames estuary and the Channel, the. occupation of which by as. enemy would be a still more direct threat to the capital..
Both schemes of invasion, of course, presuppose that Germany will have. Üle Belgian and Dutch
bano coast at his disposal as a operations, a
of outs, the OCCUPAZ
in case of chatic country try divided into two branches, which fork north. east and south east somewhere be tween Oxford and Salisbury; their narrow lines of hills, running: Ja "directions, TM form vá these same second rampart facing north west,
On the other hand, it is not the English way to pursue an enemy to his last gasp--by all means let film live on, provided he is no -longer-dangerous, --
The Engilah ure very, ready to
The allon will certainly, ruash fo.....arma:is one-man and with.... Herolo obstinacy will Tek fiself be mown down. in. framt of the line of the Owo or the chalk and
di
thing for us; it compelled
England to keep a strong army at home, which In 1917 reached a total of about 400,000 men, half of then unfit for active service, no doubt.
But what a difference an Invasion would have made! Ficet would place the Grand have been lured from lis funk-hole: then the English
In 1814, anny in France (all of
would have. most of it in 1917)
recalled, whereupon the been French would have been unable to go on
on holding the Western Front" by themselves; moreover, colonial troops would have been called-in, removing the pressure on our the Turks and In colonies, on. Macedonia.
Instead of delivering this blow, * which had every chance" of russ *cess and would have : hiruck at the heart of the Allies, as well as delivering · France info, our whands, we involved ourselves in: plocement‘operatlank #12 over the- place, which, could not bring the War. to an end.
To-morrow ITALY
tion of East Anglia is the preferskim loable plans for it silables one to
thresten both London and Indus irial"> Mildlands,.......which varo ¿ of "'" ¿orncial_importance for England's resistance, and would also Wertve