1940-01-03 — Page 8

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THE CHINA MAIL, JANUARY 3, 1940'

MIRROR OF WORLD OPINION

HOW TO AVOID A MONOLOGUE

At this writing, following a succes- sion of beautiful lulls on the Western Front, an excellent response to the inevitable question, "Well, what do you think of the war?" is "What war?" This counter question so confuses the questioner that he forgets to tell you what he thinks about the war.-"The Oregonian", Portland.

*

*

SOME NAZIS CAN READ

defenceless. The last two months have not been neglected on the home front, and whatever betides, the enemy will have a warm reception.-United Em- pire.

*

THE NEUTRALITY OF EIRE

The circumstances of the neutrality of Eire, while unpalatable to some people, may work to certain advan- tage for the British. Irish territory only a few hours away from Britain offers à not unfriendly haven for crip- ples and children, if England should be subject to serious attack. It offers neutral bases for merchant ships and It may transatlantic flying boats. provide valuable food supplies. These Henceforth we will not be allowed things may mean much in the day of to report the arrival or departure of conflict. It is possible that a new un- at derstanding such as those two peoples any ships of the Allied countries

be- have never known may develop United States ports-although the

tween the Southern Irish and the En- American Press is featuring such news. glish.-"Regina Leader-Post." Some of the New York papers print nearly a page about the arrival of large and important British ilners. The theory is that Nazi agents in Canada are able to read while those in the United States are not.-"King- ston Whig Standard."

THE WIDENING WAR

津市

✡

FEDERATION IS DEAD

The major fact that emerges from Lord Linlithgow's speech to the Cen- tral Legislature is that the prepara- tions for the inauguration of the Fe- deral Scheme, embodied in the Con- stitution Act, are to be postponed in- definitely. The Viceroy explains that this decision is due to the need win- for concentrating attention on ning the War. But though he speaks of taking up the thread of activities in this sphere again in happier times, it is best for the Government to face the fact that there can be no question of beginning again where after the shattering experiences of a war of such dimensions as the Com- Now that monwealth is engaged in. the Federal Scheme no longer cum- bers the ground, the Government should realize what a splendid oppor- tunity the moment presents for un- doing the mistakes of the past, and

we left off

Mr. Churchill recently depicted the left paw of the Russian bear as bar- ring Germany from the Black Sea, while the right disputed with her the control of the Baltic. It is, no doubt, largely in furtherance of that disputa- tion with Nazidom that Finland is be- ing so cruelly mauled; but neither the Allies nor the Scandinavian and Bal- kan neutrals can be certain that the Soviet, in reducing the Finns to vas- salage, aims solely at the protection of its own exposed frontiers. That motive may explain, though it cannot excuse, an act of aggression as cynical and authorize wicked as any that Hitlerism has per- to get into touch with accredited In- pertrated. The very pattern of Nazi dian leaders with a view to hammer- brutality is reproduced in Stalin's at- ing out an agreement that can solve tack on Finland, which has excited our immediate difficulties and world-wide anger and revulsion. the way for a definitive settlement.-

"The Hindu." Sydney "Morning Herald."

the Crown's representative

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AIR WAR ON LAND

·

*

FEAR

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One of the main reasons why air- raids have not been made upon Bri- cities and towns is tish and French because Herr Hitler knows full well

MUST PERISH BY THE SWORD

The great aerial bombardments of cities, which were anticipated as д curtain-raiser on the first night of the war, have not yet begun. That is no reason, of course, why they should not be tried out by the enemy, at his con- venience and in- deed the hint has been given that they are in pre- paration, for the German radio and newspapers are busily developing the theme that it is as legitimate to kill civilians by bombs as to starve them by blockade.

That particular. argument would be

What can we say about a thing like this? This is the second time I have bean through this, and we' are confident this time that the result will be the same. It must be the same or we would perish. This time it is a fight to a finish. Those who like the sword must perish by the sword.—Mr. W. M. Hughes.

that he has only to start that sort of thing to invite Immediate reprisals from the Allied forces. Mr. Cham- berlain has made it quite clear that within the limits of ordinary de- cency blow for blow shall be struck with the Nazis, and the first occasion German

more convincing had it not been tried aeroplanes bomb Britain, other than in the last war. On that occasion the well-recognised military objectives, British authorities hinted that it might will bring retaliation in its train. For possibly relax the blockade of food- the reduction of Warsaw to the sham- stuffs, though hot of raw materials; to bles it eventually became there was which Germany replied that she had not the slightest excuse, for all the plenty of food, and was interested in evidence points to the fact that the raw materials, Her civilians, in short, city was Indiscriminately bombed in must take what they can get and be order to strike terror into the masses. thank their shortage is simply Poland was unable to hit back. The

fodda

Allies can and will, and they have dip

the British public will shown that no fear of the air weapon may be in store existed when they insisted upon the less @restoration of land as a preliminary results in tc their:withhol seir hand against Daily News,”

were Germa

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THE CHINA MAIL, JANUARY 3, 1940

Page §

Potted-Best-Seller Serial: Fourth Day THE HOPKINS MANUSCRIPT

By R. C. SHERRIFF Author Of "Journey's End"

A story telling how the world faced calam- ity when the moon fell-written by one of the last Englishmen alive. . .

FOREWORD

(From the Imperial Research Press, Addis Ababa)

THE MOON, swinging, out of ita orbit, approached the earth. Mankind took to specially built dugouts, but Edgar Hopkins, who wrote this diary, feared the tunnels more than the cataclysm that was coming. He decided to face the end in his own small home.

"No!" said the Colonel-and there was a sharp command in his quiet voice that I had never heard before. Leave them! If it's a

hurricane

How can I describe the last in- credible week In Beadle without giving the impression that the whole lot of us were as mad as March hares?

But nothing in that strange week then it's safer in the open. If they compared with its extraordinary end-go to that dugout they won't return Ing upon the Saturday night. It was to it when they need it most-on Mon- our last Saturday-the great cataclysm day night." fell due on Monday,

I had been down to the village to settle one or two small outstanding ac- counts in order to face Monday with a clear conscience, and as I passed the village hall I saw a small crowd read- ing a poster.

NOTICE

To-night at 9 p.m.!

*

*

I did not understand his meaning, but I think that he visualised a horror in that scaled dugout that must at all costs be kept until the end.

Pat gave a little laugh beside me. "There's Robin!" she said.

I looked across the cricket field.

The First Cricket Match ever to be There was Robin, with Charlie Hurst,

played by moonlight!

our village captain, walking across the Married versus Single Men of field to open the innings.

Bendle.

Losers to stand drinks all round!

Play starts at moonrise. Stumps drawn at midnight!

After dinner I sat in my garden and waited for the moon to rise.

|

"The wind came in a shrieking torrent

Something struck

with a mighty crash against the house

_the_great_elma went down like corn.... #

moll came the voice of Sapper Evans; "Get down!-lle down!"

In a body we flung overselves upon the smooth turf of the meadow, claw-

And then it was over-as suddenly as it had begun. With a tired sigh the

It is incredible that we were able to concentrate upon that cerle cricket match, but despite everything I founding our fingers for absurd protection

around the tufts of grass. myself held by the fascination of it. The village, unaware of the radio warning and growing more accustomed to their surroundings, warmed up with a cheer when Charlie banged the first ball high over the bowler's head to land with a resounding whack against the bowling screen.

The breathless glory of that rising moon robbed all terror from it and left me humbled and speechless. Its vast glare caught the hills beyond the Manor House and crept down to drink the-jet-black-darkness of the valley-It was nearly-eleven-when-the-first- -flowed over the church and onwards to the cricket ground, emblazoning that shabby marquee and the thread- bare bowling screens into a Field of the Cloth of Gold.

*

*

A thrush began to sing in the arbour above my head, and beneath me, in the winding lanes, I could see the village people, upon their way to the cricket match-clusters of pale faces motionless and staring upwards speechless.

All the way to the village the birds sang in chorus as birds only can upon a dawn in May: I think the singing of those birds in, the moonlight was the strangest sound that I had ever heard.

As I entered the gates to the cricket ground I was surprised at the un- canny stillness. I had to glance around before I could believe that the village was assembled here.

I saw a tall man climb the stile be- hind the trees: I saw that a girl was with him, a girl in grey skirt and white pullover, and I was glad that I had come. Colonel Parker and Pat were' home again. I waved to them and they crossed the field to share a seat with me.

As I took Pat's hand I thought that her face was pale, even in the golden

innings closed, and everybody gather- ed around the marquee for cakes and coffee. I saw Colonel Parker talking earnestly with the vicar beside the pavilion at a little distance from the crowd. What decision they had 'made I shall never know: whether they were going to cancel the game and advise the people to go to the dugout. For as they approached the marquee the hur- ricane was upon us.

I call it a hurricane for want of a better word: It was the strangest dis- turbance that I had ever experienced. It began with the long-drawn mur- mur of distant thunder, but the mur- mur did not die as the murmur of thunder dies.

8

With awful swiftness it grew to a roar that passed over the valley like

river in mighty

flood-a river a hundred express through which

its volume trains ploughed, and as grew it become a long-drawn bowl of pain. Swiftly the moon's brilliance faded. It became the colour of an old brown boot as the dusts of the Rus- slan steppes and the dusts of the plains of America streamed overhead in a the west-to- vast cascade towards wards the Atlantic and towards the deserts whence they came.

*.

**

Every peg upon one side of the mar-

light of the moon, and Colonel Parker's | quee was wrenched from the ground, voice was quiet and grave as he spoke and for

to me.

"There was

a moment it was like, a giantess standing grotesquely upon her a radio message-just head with skirts flying upwards. I only as we left," said the Colonel, "there's saw it for a second because suddenly been some kind of a hurricane-fol- | the hurricane seemed to rise from the lowing the moon as it. waned over very...pores of the earth; I felt my Russia and America-they didn't say trouser legs billow out and rise up- much just warned people to the wards: I found myself overwhelmed in stuffy darkness as my cost flapped dugouts."

around my face like an umbrella in-

"We must tell them," I cried. There was something horrible in the deathly | side-out. calm surrounding us: in those twitter- ing birds and silent, floodlit trees,

There was a woman's shriek: a cra

of coffee-cups and through.

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murmur died away: the light of the moon flowed back to us-a golden, waning light. I rose to my feet and pulled down the legs of my trousers. A ripple of nervous laughter came-a woman, crying quietly, began to gather up the broken cups. The marquee hung forlorn and lopsided from a cou- ple of slanting poles, and in the far the chairs were corner of the field

heaped like driven, autumn leaves.

There was a tired smile in Pat's brave eyes as I said "goodnight” to her beside the cricket pavilion. Robin was upon his knees beside his cricket (Continued on Page 15)

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