1936-04-28 — Page 11

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THE CHINA MAIL, TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 1935

BUGBEAR OF STAFF THE RIDDLE

TALKS

(Continued from Page 6)

you were a party

Was

(Continued from Page 7.)

the under-growth and set out to investigate the fence.

"But

to also carried a brush-hook and a Beyond it he could see a trail of them," replied. Lord Haldane. water-bag- Very strange indeedļauts travelling across the cleared This Lord Morley strenuously he looked to the watching porer-patch on the other side and mak- knew very little of ing off into the scrub. Pushing denied. "Have you got your red pine, who box of papers of the Committee men, and was therefore afraid of and peering at the wire soon can- vinced him that he could not get of Imperial Defence?" replied them. Lord Haldane. The box

To him they were great, noisy, through, so he decided to go round. He walked so far that he forgot produced. And out of it Lord long-striding creatures, who were Haldane extracted a memoran-continually chopping or slashing his objective, and was enjoying a ants or mee of black-and-white dum of Gen. Ewart's exposition at something-always cutting

de-that had swarmed on to a branch to the Committee of Imperial breaking down, inveterate

he Defence in 1910 of the plans for stroyers. He felt that he dis-lying on the ground, when

chanced to glance up and saw an- the concentration at Maubeuge. liked them very much indeed.

Just opposite the porcupine the other porcupine regarding him In- Two Postscripts At the foot of it, in Lord man stopped, looking at the fence tently through the wire netting.

His first instinct was to fall to Morley's handwriting, were two The wind had torn down a gum- tell-tale postscripts, the

first bough and hurled it upon the bar with renewed vigour, lapping up "Doubtful if I ought to approve bed-wire that ran three-fold above the ants, for he had no intention of sharing them with anyone-pot of this;” the second, "But the netting.

He chopped the bough into con-jeven so attractive a young por- suppose it's in the interests of

venient lengths and stacked the cupine as the newcomer szemed to European peace.”

However, it was not loog Mr. Lloyd George recalled last pieces roughly among the under-be month that when M. Paul Cambon, growth beyond the clearing. Then before he paused in his lapping. the French Ambassador, went to be tightened the sagging wire.and glanced at her once more.

She was still looking at him the Foreign Office for a promise of shook the post to try its firmness, help and was met with a refusal and examined the retting for holes, curiously, almost earnestly, and he "Em!" he said at list, stand-now left his meal and wandered he said, "There is only one ques whether ¡tion

the wording back and surveying his work; over to the fence, just in time-to see the fickle young creature dis- honour is to be expunged from m the English dictionary.”

As a parting shot, he slashed appearing into a clump of fern.

with his

Tut, tut! She might have lin

10-

It is a picturesque story and it at a protrading vine certainly was current at the time. brush-book. uprooted a few weeds gered just a little! He bovered But the man at the Foreign Office that grew in the cleared strip and about restlessly, peering through the netting in the hope of catch- who gave the refusal explicitly then proceeded along the fence.

hading another glimpse of the states (Twenty-Five Years" vol. Long after his footsteps

the porcupine lay friendly young lady.

Cap- For days he stayed in the local Marseilles & London.

curled-up in the shadows.

eating ants and gazing Bombay, Marseilles & London.

"In thut week. the most pressing tiously he left the protection of ity. Marseilles, Barre, London, Ham

burg, Rotterdam, Antwerp & Hull appeals were made to us to promise mbay, Marseilles & London

help but not once in all the arguments versant than the Foreign Secre- easy.

Bomberales & London.

i p. 85) that the appeal to honour died away. was never employed:

OF

through the wire, restless and un-

Out of this restlessness

15,000 30th May. Buen. Harre. London. Fam-addressed to.me did either the French

the porcupine again-this burg, Rotterdam, Antwerp & Hall or Russian Government or their Amary with what was going on, for grew a. vague idea; he wanted to

bassadors in London

say or imply they did not know that military see 17,000 13th June

London, Ham-that, we were under any obligation conversations had been in pro-(particular porcupine.

Of course he had seen any num- 7,000

Marseiles,

burg, Rotterdam, Antwerp & Hull of any sort The appeal was made gress at all. When they found it

of them before. walking to our interest: it was never sus out at the time of the Agadir ber 17,000 27th June Bombay, Marseilles & London.

gested that our honour good faith crisis in 1911 they were, accord- through the shadowy scrub, but 14,500 11th July Bombay, Marseilles & London.

5,000 18th July Marseilles, Havre, London, Ham was involved

ing to Mr. Lloyd George (War he felt that this one was differ burg, Rotterdam, Antwerp & Hull

grew quite annoyed de-Memoirs, Vol. I. p. 50) aghast ent. Bombay, Marseilles &

"Hostility hardly represents the about the matter, for walk up and Bombay,

strength of the sentiment which the down as he might, he could never revelation aroused; it was more

where get round the netting to akin to consternation."

London London London

•SOMALI

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• Carro only.

and

Host Of Witnesses Grey's statement that the Ham-finite understanding formally emi burg, Rotterdam, Antwerp & Hull, bodied in the Notes exchanged be- tween himself and Cambon in

he knew she lay curled up in the Bombay Marseilles & London.

The Contingency November, 1912, was honourably Bombay, Marseilles & London.

kept on both sides is supported by Marseilles & Lezdan.

Many Ministers in that Cabinet undergrowth on the other aide.

Then one happy day she appear- a host of witnesses. The govern-were easily "consternated." fed again, and the procupine tried | ing passage of that understanding the startled section was only paci- no more to get round the inter- was this:

fied by the exchange of the Greyminable wire. He knew now with "From time to time in recent Cambon letters, which expressly certainty that he must reach her years the French and British naval declared that the two Governments and military experts have consult ed together.

always were in no sense committed by the It has been understood that such consulta. military conversations which had tion does not restrict the freedom taken place.

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of either Government to decide at "Personally," wrote Mr. Lloyd he knew that the matter was an any future time whether or not to George in his Memoirs, "I was urgent one, that some definite step

Swettenham. Singapore,

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assist the other by armed force. We have agreed that consultation prepared

So that when the porcupine by rather dour, man, said very little. Suddenly the male porcupine between experts is not and ought Secretary's not to be regarded as an engage were not committed." and he was the fern again turned her back He had gained the position be-stopped. His mate. followed suit. ment that compels either Govern-strengthened in his

to action in a contingency by Gen. Sir Henry Wilson's ex-pon him, walking off casually into cause of his reliability and vigil-But they did not curl up. It was

The idea of a hole in thejenriosity which caused them. the scrub, he not only formed a ance. planations before the Committee

plan bat proceeded to act upon it fence troubled him, yet be felt halt, not fear." of Imperial Defence of the ar

Rapidly he burrowed his way that there was no such hole. Just through the wire netting, rangements entered into with

into the earth beside the netting, He also felt that there was no on the Queensland side, by a trap. * Mr. Asquith ("The Genesis of the French Foreign Office. "They

Jack Dennis must have And caught in the trap, frusly and the War," p. 58) says. The En-were contingent," says Mr. Lloyd the loose soil fiying in clouds as rabbit. tente was never converted into an George,

German at-he sank deeper and deeper. Down seen a hare--perhaps a freak hare inevitably, was a rabòn. "upon a

He lay twisted and mangled, and alliance. While working cordially tack on Belgium and the march of he went, and up, with such fierce which was coloured like a rabbit.

he should However, he did not contradict yet in an abandoned sort of at with France and Russia to secure German

divisions through that energy that he knew

Jack. He merely made a mental titude, just as he had ended his the international equilibrium we country to attack France" That soon be at the surface again.

But suddenly, right across his note of the matter, and set out last struggle as life ebbed out of kept ourselves free to decide when was in 1912. The "contingency"

path, be came once more upon the to keep a stricter watch than if the occasion arose whether we

actually occurred in 1914.

exasperating netting! Turned up ever.

For quite a while the porcupines should or should not go to war." Did Mr. Lloyd George then re-like a letter L, several inches un Perhaps, after all, a particular waited, sulfing about, listening M. Poincare bears similar testi-i gret the Staff Talks of the pre-derground, it still barred his way ly enterprising rabolt might gain an watching. Eventually, just as

vious years or the plans which had

Furious, he hunched his body, access somehow. Once through, it they were about to depart they "The text of the letters exchang- been worked out for the convey-

toheard footsteps-firm, decided foot- ed between the French Ambassador

sure of which he W23 and Sir E. Grey was published in ance of the B.E.F. over the French and with all the strength and pres-would be quite easy for him

capable remain hidden in hundreds of steps, crushing the loam and leaf- England and then in France after railways?

worked and pushed and strained acres of forest, partly choked with mould-the tread of a man. the German invasion. The phras-

until the wire buckled up into the undergrowth.

Padding into the undergrowth, ing was simply hypothetical and

Ee cannot have done so because earth above his back.

If any of the men had been the porcupines curled up, watching implied no firm obligation of re-

Then he worked on until he felt slack, he could understand it well him through the wire ciprocal assistance. The British he says, "I never doubted that if Cabinet did not feel itself able to the Germans interfered with the himself free of it, and with new enough. But they were all, so

At the sight of the dead rabbit, he imew, conscientious the man uttered an exclamation contract positive engagement integrity and independence of Bel-energy tunneled his way to the far as without Parliamentary sanction gium we were bound to discharge surface, where he emerged

into workers.

and went down on his knees by When the horizon darkened, there-

that daylight on the New South Wales The only thing for him to do the trap. fore, we had no certainty of British our treaty obligations to

ON was to keep a lynx-like eye "At last!" he crowed; "yon intervention, and this was a farther country." Why, then, does he as side.

Rapidly he crossed the cleared this particular portion. He vowed little blighter! Sorry" with 2 reason why our diplomacy never sail them now as "military erased to be prudent."

tanglements" which "precipitated" strip, swiftly he melted into the that if Jack had indeed seen grin, as he forced back a lever-- That the Staff Talks had helped the war and prevented the healing shade where he knew the other rabbit, if there was a rabbit in "but this is what happens to New dydney to

constitute

exceedingly ministrations of diplomacy?

the scrub at all, he would even-South Wales rabbits who Come porcupine waited for him.

Hnto Queensland!” He rose. "So

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mony:

A

"World Crisis."

"an

Treaty Obligations

en-

#

*

There was great excitement on

France. but have cut ourselves off This clamour against the Anglo-poobed the idea. It was impossible. Every man was thereafter set the fence: not the smallest hole.

every Now, where in blazes did you get

...

potent tie," though ne national or The plans may have been right| A venturesome New South Wales tually see it for himself. political engagement followed the or wrong, sound or unsound. But rabbit scampered up to the tun- And so he did. Quite three that's that!" technical discussions, is frankly at least they were plans, and con-zel, peered in, pink nose a-quiver, weeks later he came upon it frisk- It was Grant. He stood there, stated by Mr. Churchill in his sidering the appalling chaos slipped like a flash under the ing in a clearing at sunset-e jhalf in shade and half in sumglight, which prevailed outside the range fence, and came out into the foronely, but carefree, morsel, a New his blue shirt open at the chest, But as Grey explained to a of those plans where prepara-bidden land.

South Wales rabbit completely at his wide-brimmed hat pushed back colleague:

tions had been left to the inspira-

home in Queensland! .

upon his head.. From one long, "If there were no military plans tion of the moment when the

Grant blinked; then swallowed wiry hand dangled the dead rab- made beforehand we should be - able to come to the assistance of emergency arose it is a mercy the Queensland side of the fence. hard. It was a cabbit all. right! bit.

Jack Dennis, one of the men Jack had been quite correct. There It beats me!" said Grant, aloud, France in time, however strongly that the strategy and the trans- public opinion in Britain might de- port of the BEF. had not to be who patrolled and repaired it. wis no doubt in the world that after the habit of men who live zire it. We should in effect zot improvised in a blind harry when reported that he had caught sight it was a rabbit. Even the taci- much slone; it fair beats me. have preserved our freedom to help the catastrophe befell

Not a hole in the whole length of · of a rabbit. Every-one pooh-turn Grant became excited. from the possibility of doing so unless we had allowed the British French military and naval con-Rabbits, could not break through to examine very carefully and French Staffs to concert plans versations before the Great War the fence. Jack must have seen inch of fence, in search of the int for common' action."

has no justification in fact. They a hare...

gap through which the bunny must In his exasperation he gave the Matter Of Routine

This made Dennis faintly sar-have entered. Feeling ran high-body a little shake. in no sense precipitated the war

"Where in blazes did you get Grey, in fact, accepted the Staff or

aiIt was almost as though the rab hindered the efforts of the castic. As if he didn't know

of in, I say?" Talks almost as a matter of diplomatists. The causes of the hare from a rabbit! He got quite,bit's entry marked a breach

But the riddle remained routine in the then troubled state war lay wholly outside them. They huffy about it eventually, but the state honour.

answered Bunny was past, hear- For further information, Passage, Freight, Handbooks, etc., apply of international affairs. He in- had nothing to do with the crucial settlers went on langhing at him to The Agentæ:———--

sisted, however, that they ought to decisions of the British Cabinet or ignoring him.

Hot upon the trail of an army ing, and the porcupine who lay be kept strictly secret, and, indeed, in the first week of August except Fabbit indeed! What was the of red ants, the two porcupines fearled up in the sindow on the zi în 1911 that he did not know that the knowledge that plans were good of having those chaps patrol came together towards the bound-New Couth Wales side would not On have told, even if he had been what the experts had settled be in existence may have strengthening the fence, then? They mustary fence. All was quiet

many able. concern was ed: the warerers, when news came be falling down on their jobs bad-the warm air hang the P&O BUILDING, CONNAUGHT ROAD CENTRAL, HONGKONG |tween 'them His

He had no particular affection that his own hands were not of the invasion of Belgium; toy if the fences were in such din odours of flowering vines and Frome 27721

Sobey what then seemed and still repair that a rabbit could walk trees, and from not very far off for rabbits, but men he positively Apparently most members of seems to most pisin persons -- the through!

came the subdued music Grant, the overseer, a silent, waterfall. the Cabinet were even less con-etern, inescapable call of duty.

(THE END)

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