1940-09-17 — Page 7

THE CHINA MAIL; ́SEPTEMBER 17, 1940.

CHINA MAIL

WINDSOR HOUSE.

THE VILLAINS OF THE PIECE

The argument that nations that are now Great Powers would be! happier if they accepted a more modest place in the, world has recently at-1 tracted a good deal of in- terest and support. The case of Sweden is often cited. Is she not a hap-! pier and more self-res-! pecting people than she was in the great days of Gustavus Adolphus? The Dutch have less of the character of a Great Pow- er to-day than they had in the seventeenth cen- tury. But any man might| have been proud to be a Dutchman after the de- cline of the Dutch ascen- dancy. Many who discuss- ed this thesis overlooked] a truth that has now been rudely forced on their not- ice. Neither Sweden nor Holland could have lived as they lived in the nine- teenth century if there had been no restraint,] either in the system of the balance of power or in the strength of the British Navy, on the ag

England, with all thy faults I love thee still!

(Cowper)

New Constitution

Of France

gressive instincts of great The new Government, imposed as Assistant Secretary. His chief States. Still less was such on France under the threat of claim to distinction is to have a life possible for then announces that she is to have the very start. To judge by those mechanised Prussian divisions, been always a defeatist, from the after the development of benefit of a new constitution, personally known to me, they mechanical warfare.

Having abolished the old consti- have all been more or less ready Ti tution, her Government concocts to capitulate at any time. France were now to reor- a new one which is to put force on ganise her life on a simphis pose as "Thinker" about to

a lasting basis. M. Baudouin, in No Right To Vote ler scale and to drop any step into Talleyrand's shoes, calls To judge by their statements; attempt to maintain mil-by an Executive "strong enough is the complete abolition of the this "taking firm hold of the reins" the guiding principle of their plan itary power, she would be to subdue all demagogues," and right to vote. M. Baudouin calls at the mercy of Germany. is "bold reasoning and high think-genius of a small number of men' says that what France needs now this quaintly "the constructive In other words, whethering." Hitherto, France eschewed destined to regenerate France but she seeks to modify or to realise that these maxims

it all, having. been 'too blind to impossible to find among the

em-"mere numbers of electorali increase her ambitions, to bodied the four cardinal virtues, bodies"; a plausible enough state- relax or to grow, she has but Marshal Petain and his electment, but hardly sufficient to con-

are now determined to make her demn universal suffrage. happy after their own fashion.

these apostles but

There ought to be

By Elie J. Bois

to suit herself to the plans of Germany. What fol-

If French suffrage and French twelve lows? It follows that her

of Parliamentarianism as a whole there are have admittedly been vitiated by great mistake, as it was thirteen-an ominous figure, and we may well ask who will prove] the great mistake of our the Judas among them. But do not political leaders, with alet us anticipate for fear of dis- couraging him. One of these few distinguished excep-apostles has been made Minister tions, was to miss the op-of Labour, probably for the pur- pose of liquidating the French portunity given her by ru.C. (C.G.T.), where he worked the creation of the League of Nations. The moulding

Formerly Editor of the

"Petit Parisien”

clectioncering abuses, this hardly | justified complete abolition instead) of a wise reform. The trouble is, of course, that reform would givej suffrage new lease of life,

to kill it. From their point of

but, on the

WAR EFFORT, 1940

Britain stood as a fortress, when in at her gates, there come

A band of beautiful strangers with shields and helms of flame-

The ghosts of all the heroes who ever for Britain stood,

King Arthur and Guy of Warwick, brave Richard and Robin Hood,

;

They said: "We have come to ask you, in the name of our great St. George,

Could you do with extra swordsmen, or a few spare hands at the forge?"

As they spoke they stared around them; awe took the place of doubt:

They saw the tanks move forward and the dawn patrols go out,

They saw the searchlights. hidden in every summer glade,

How the six-inch guns were mounted and how the shells were made.

Then the phantoms smiled together; they said: "We might have known!

Sons of our battle brothers can handle this thing alone.

They only need our blessing, they share the faith we hold,

Their hands are just as steady and their hearts are just as bold.

We can go home. to Heaven with a wonderful tale to tell

How latter-day sons and daughters are guarding the kingdom well!”

GRETA: BRIGGS.

ог

and remoulding of the villains of the piece are life of any State that can not the men who wanted whereas these new leaders want not hold its own by sheer France to keep her word view, they are right; they know military strength is nc in September, 1938, and that a nation free to vote would longer in its own hands again in September, 1939, sweep them out of office with con- tumely. Hence their need for a The map of Europe to-day but men like M. Laval Parliament of Yes-men, on the makes that clear to the himself, who intrigued they also plan

Fascist model; as a supererogation.

to replace. the dullest mind. It should against the League of French Departments by twelve Provinces. The old system ad- have been clear after 1918 Nations and undermined mittedly produced some anomalies at the first jolt, like the house of often in his defence), and M. Neither Britain nor its strength. No man did that resisted the passage of time clock back. Or are they indeed been obscured by ambition, all the cards it is.. They cannot put the Pierre Laval, whose judgment has France can abate their more than he to bring

whole, it worked,

[simple enough to dream of court=|rest are misfits, nonentities, smoothly. strength and keep their France to disaster. If

fng the few Royalists still Teft? If just turncoats; how can they pre- the Court of Paris saw his way to sume to set themselves up as in- independence except on France had broken her There is an ulterior motive be-enter the capital to-morrow, hefterpreters of the will of France? one condition, the crea-word last year she would hid all this to reduce the in- would hardly consult any of the

fluence of Paris · and convince men who besmirched their names Let them take a walk through tion of some collective not have escaped her pre-partisans of centralisation, like by signing the capitulation or ap-the streets of Paris and watch the authority behind whose sent servitude. If, on the is what France needs so she may him the honour to assume that he they look furtively and defiantly Charles Maurras, that regionalism proving of it; at least, I will do unsmiling faces of passers-by, as shelter all peoples can de-[other hand, she had used be held the more firmly in hand would remember his ancestor who to left and right; let them visit velop their own institu- all her influence to make through carefully selected gover-thought Paris well worth a Mass, the village squares and see the and himself would consider it well closed and screened windows, tions. Post-war France the League of Nations a

worth a Parliament to receive the with now and then the worn face of a lonely woman peeping out, or was more vulnerable than power, she would have Futting Back The Clock keys of the Louvre.

the small cafes where the village Britain, and to this ex-kept her own freedom, as Prophesying is a thankless task These poor benighted beings do elite used to meet, but only silence. tent the folly of her states- she would have assured venture to predict, at the risk of ary structure will be built on storm. Here ends, my-forecast-- In these uncertain days yet I will not realise that their grand vision- relins now the quiet. hgfore the men was even greater their freedom to the other Incurring the displeasure of the sand. Apart from Marshal Pétain, but is there one among these

thirteen great men, that their who has outlived all but his re- "clect" even capable of grasping. than the folly of ours. The peoples of Europe work cannot last and will crumble putation (we cannot repeat it too it?: I doubt it.

nors,