1941-01-13 — Page 7

Praise

Of

Britain

་

that satisfaction favourable

of

By J. B. FIRTH

up

im-

NATIONS, like individuals, feel the Admiralty of the Air above it. slow passage of the painful hours other variants is Freedom's

stronger for the approbation Our friends have been most gener- between? I suppose he was think-placable foe. of others in time of trial. It con-ous in their acknowledgment, ing of the old legend of Prome- firms their belief in their cause A recent "Message For To-Day" theus chained to his rock, with the is offered by the Axis Powers is The "New Order" which Europe and in themselves. The moral consisted of a passage from Victor vulture for ever plucking at his no more than a shrouded Shape, support that comes from a sense Hugo which probably communi- vitals, in punishment for his hav-undefined in outline, but black and Britain's most potent of unity, if not of personal com-cated to many readers a thrill of ing stolen Fire from Heaven and menacing, suggesting hidden ter-

radeship, is ill exchanged for the pure pleasure. It was so generous bestowing it as the first of weapon against her foes is chilly, though splendid, isolation and so apposite. It was so cheer-blessings upon Man,

all rors and oppressions, new subjec- And this tions of body and mind, new in- the constant pressure of of the Athanasian attitude of one ing and so true.

"England may be. justly proud tolic altars," illumes the lamp of ments and new and more abject Fire, which "kindled upon apos- famies in tyranny and its instru- against all the rest. the blockade. It was that That is why we read with such of her colossal strength and god- England's Faith, what is it but the subserviences in the slave. slow, inevitable strangle intende comment on any important rock rests the genius of England. which the evil forces in the world

like repose. Stretched upon a light of Liberty and Freedom, England stands for the Freedom hold that in the last war development of British policy. She waits her hour but counts not

she has made her own are for eyer striving to put out? sapped Germany's stub and glow with special pleasure the hours between."

through the centuries, Her free Unqualified culogy is tolerable and unbandaged eyes pierce the when, rising from the particular born powers of endurance to the general, some authoritative written I do not know, nor have for the dead.

In what year that passage was

only in epitaphs and epitaphs are Shape and can trace the foul England lives and abominations which turk within. so greatly that the coun-voice pronounces a eulogy on I had the courage to search the to live in a world of men is to The fate of the Czechs and the try refused to face a fifth English or British character, Na-many

volumes of the Great blunder often and fall far short of Poles-marked down for utter ex- tional policy must veer to some Romantic in hope of finding it. If the stature of perfection, But the termination as a winter of privation, and degree with the changing condi- it was penned during his 18 years will to approximate to perfection apostles of blood and iron from State by the tions of wind or sea: the essentials of exile in Jersey and Guernsey, is there, and the national rule of Bismarck collapsed in defeat. It is

of character are more or less fixed while he watched the full meri-life has never been quite obliter-warning what would be our own. onwards--is sufficient the same

naval instru-with a certain assured quality of dian splendour of the Third Em- ated even when achievement has ment

"If a tyrant's hand descends on that

permanence. month by

sunk to its lowest level.

Englund, a The world has been full of our

conqueror with his month constricts more

England has been pulled praise during the searching trials

armies, let none think to escape. with and more uncomfortably to which the fibre of the British

Is there one of Eng- a sudden jerk many times None, say I. after living too easily, too care-

lish blood who while he lives will the breathing room of people has been subjected.

It has pire and its sudden plunge into iessly and too slothfully upon the feel the joy as heretofore of prim- been no mere presentation of cere- the dark, it may be observed that honey in her hive. Liberty and Hitler's Germany. Cer-monial bouquets. One can easily not all exiles are half so grateful Freedom

roses in spring, the scent of sura- have produced Demo-

mer meadows, the carolling of tainly Germany will not distinguish the frigid tribute

to the land which gives them safe cracy, and Democracy is the most birds, the good fellowship of mar- respect from the warm hand-clasp shelter from their enemies. lack for food and many of friendship. We shall go forward deed,

In difficult form of government yet ket day? The very laughter of for every political exile, invented and not the easiest, as so

the children will be hollow. We other materials in this with renewed confidence now that from the days of the French Ter- many of its most vehement advo-shall be a different people.

the faith of the outside world in

Mr. ror to the Red, who expressed an second winter of its totali-England has manifestly been born appreciative

cates but worst friends would Speaker, we are not of different understanding of have us believe. For it encour-

fibre from our forebears.” tarian war. If there is

again.

England, a any

score remained con- ages Make-Believe-the bubbles Thus Mr. Pitt, in one of his food famine in

scious chiefly of their acute dis- which please the eye as they float rarest moods, in 1803, and the overrun

comforts in strange and uncon- away into the inane or collapse moving sentences refute the libel Europe before next har- It has helped to lift some

genial surroundings, of, like the at the first contact with hard real-that he was cold and bloodless. adder in the story, bit the hand ity. their worst vest, Germany will be

apprehensions

Every word is no less true of to- which warmed them at its flres.

The Make-Believe that there themselves. The island bulwark

would-and could-be

day, save that it would be reckon- no more directly responsible for it. Freedom

We may be the more grateful, still stands. "Kepe therefore, to the supreme egoist, mercifully on

war landed us where we are, but ed a crime for our children to As.R. W. B. Clarke says in thamyralte" was the advice of a who scorned the ordinary vocabu- awake and in

our feet,

laugh at all. wide- sagacious counsellor 500 years ago, lary of abuse of "perfide Albion" strenuous action. "Britain's Blockade," one whose

the mood for name unfortunately has and the like and lavished upon of the latest of the au-look in their antique spelling, yet Mark, too, how it continues:

been lost. The words have an odd England so superb

panegyric. thoritative Oxford Pam-the sense is but thinly plated over. phlets, "As a long-term Keep the Admiralty is Tudor Ens proposition the blockade god counsellor added the reason of Nazi-dominated Europe why: cannot create starvation, much less famine, unless there is a catastrophic failure of harvest. Enough still keeps the Admiralty of the bread-grains can certain-narrow seas and has added thereto ly be produced, supple- mented by potatoes, to provide enough calories for every European

Hugo's Fine Phrase

of for of

lish for Rule the Waves. And this

That we be maysters of the

narrowe sea.

A month of grim fighting has convinced the world that Britain

a

have triumphed. The lamp of her

"Her virtue and her patience

'New Order" Spectre

R

slavery"

"I think we must get rid of

wrote

far-seeing American in 1856 “or we must get rid of Freedom." His compatriots bitter Civil War a

faith, kindled upon apostolic al- tars, burns as beacon to man- kind. Her example has regenerat had to fight ed the erring; her mildness has few years later tu decide which rebuked the rebellious; and her they would retain and which re- greatness has enchanted the good."ject. We in our turn are fighting Whence did Hugo derive his the most desperate of all our wars stretched upon a rock, waiting for rid of Freedom or of Hitlerism, simile of the genius of England to decide whether we are to get the hour and regardless of the which, with Fascism and sundry

How To Conquer U.S.A.

"Nichi

Sen

prove a decisive factor in the war. With the Hawaiian Islands as her base of operations, America could bomb Tokyo or Osaka without

While Hawail is an American possession, Japan would have to remain on the defensive. But if, on the contrary. Japan occupies the islands, her feet would And itself in a position not only to as- sume the offensive, but also to

of America.

canal by an effective air fleet. The Attacks should be made on the

destruction of the canal and the American Fleet would literally be half the battle. Thus would end

England has risen to a peak of greatness which, in Victor Hugo's phrase, has "enchanted the good." Who are the good? They are the good citizens, the good, decent. folk of every nation throughout: the world who

fondly cherish either the actuality or the memory, of Public Faith and Public Li- berty as the secular religion of the land once more "backed by God State. They rejoice to know Eng- and the sea" dauntless

and presenting a hatred.

front to embattled

1

pleasure when I light upon out- It always gives me singular spoken and ungrudging tributes: paid by eminent Americans to the: English character as being the. nearest in kind to. their own. Happily, there have always been. such Americans, even when An- glo-American relations have been. at their worst, who have not shrunk from proclaiming their faith in Great Britain as one of the strongest pillars of political Liberty.

current controversies, refusing to Ignoring the froth and spurne of

be swayed by this section or that of American opinion which had its own reasons for nursing an has

ancient grudge with England; un- The third period would begin moved by transient squabbles over with a landing of Japanese forces boundaries and tariffs or resent- on the western coast of the Ameri-ments at ill-kept pledges, or what can continent and the work of has seemed a wilful lack of sym- distance between Hawaii and the destroying the ties and naval pathy and understanding, these

ports on the west,

Americans have never doubted The next course would be to that the British people were like- of defence minded with themselves on the along the Rocky Mountains, so major problems of public and pri

conduct. that our military troops might be vate

The blood massed in the occupied areas along counts each year for less and less the coast.

as the earliest strains become more diluted, What matters now is similarity or identity of ideal,

By Kiykatsu Sato form the main line

American continent is a little smaller than that between the This would

islands and Japan. mean that at the outbreak of hos- tilities fleet or fleets

Preparations made west of the Rockies, our army would now

towards the east coast. This

tie

The Nazis, in fact, are the (Condensed from the book, much difficulty, provided she uses, At the same time the Panama

Bei only people who have it in

Chikashi" aeroplanes and airships of super-Canal must be destroyed, (Japanese-United States War Im- for quality.

as the their power to create star-minent), published in Tokyo).

maintenance of traffic through it would facilitate supplies to the vation in Europe."

American Navy. WHEN and where a Japanese- Britain has firmly turn- American war will be fought ed down American pro-what motives hostilities may come We cannot say. No matter from posals to send free food to to be opened, or whether we as- Europe, not for any lack sue the offensive or the defen bomb the cities on the west coast the second period of the war.

sive, there can be no doubt that of humanitarian feeling Hawaii will be the most impor- In a war with America, there- towards the victims of lant strategic paint in a war be- fore, we must at all costs, even

tween America and Japan.

at the sacrifice of a few vessels, Nazidom, but because of Success or failure in the strug-take possession of Hawaii, The the treatment that Hoo-gle for this strategic point will ver's Relief Commission suffered at the hands of the Germans in the last war. To relieve hardship plants in Germany by the would give the less scru-R.A.F. has reduced that pulous Nazis a golden op- expensive method of ex- ties the American block take the offensive and advance codes of conduct, rules of life. portunity to evade their tracting petrol from coal to the islands before the Japanese, would usher in the fourth and the

Freedom Is At Stake responsibilities, to make by 50 to 80 per cent. Italy, in so far as both feets have the propaganda against Bri- of course, has no coal of navy must needs possess ships far

same speed. For this reason our last period of the war.

Let us cherish fine sayings like Each period' would probably last these and forget the querulous tain, and to get some free its own, and only a small speedier than American.

one or two years; the third and fault-finding of lesser men. The food, not only for the oil well in Albania, now in ca were in the Hawaiian waters longest. Thus the war would last many of their shrewder observers If the main squadron of Ameri- the fourth periods would last the United States have recently sent armies of occupation, but the battle zone. Rumania at the outbreak ofAmerican and might even drag out to last longer, could stand up to the Blitzkrieg, war, then a at least six or seven years; it over here to see how the English also for delivery to Ger- supplies probably 6 mil- Japanese main Beets would have If and when Japan, forestalled by how they could take severe pun- many, some of it to be lion tons. Of Russia's to take place somewhere between America, finds it impossible to ishment, and to discover whether turned into munitions.

output Stalin can spare our navy emerge victorious from

the islands and Yokohama. Should occupy Hawali, her navy would they had a sporting chance; Such see the wisdom of deferring a de- of their reports as I have seen During the last war, in almost as little to Ger- this battle, it would, be able to cisive battle with the American breathe the kindness not of pity Lloyd George's pictures- many as he can foodstuffs, occupy Hawaii, and its subsequent ships till full preparations were hut of admination-just as one

operations would be facilitated. completed.

would have it be. que phrase, "the Allies Under the blockade, with the would compel the Japanese subjected to bombardment and Pigs, the United States Ambas

The opposite result of this bat-

Meanwhile, our coast might be as in 1916 so now Then Mr floated to victory on a sea railway bottlenecks, sabo-Navy to remain on the defensive the main cities to attacks from the salon, while protesting that he of oil"

The oil consump- tage, and a frozen and would render its operations air. Our army would have to "dalls grew stronger in his tion of Germany and Italy Danube, the Nazi outlook thing is, therefore, for Japan to and stave off the enemy's landing, not the hyphenated counterfeit

extremely difficult. The

defend the coast facing the Pacific Americanism, real Americanism, before this war was nearly on its oil future is a bleak see that hostilities are opened be- while our flotillas of destroyers declared his belief that the only 11 million tons a year. one. Already the current American Fleet is brought to Ha- an opportunity of attacking.

fore the main strength of the and submarines would watch for invincible thing in Europe are The present position must supplies available to Eu wall and that her naval operations enemy's. capital ships,

these same, English," And he adfibanJust when you'd like to give

the Axis Powers rope are less than one take place with lightning speed. When thoroughly ready, our hang them of their stupidity, you The struggle for Hawail thus main squadron would go forth and become aware of such noble stuff many premonitory al- half of peace consump constitutes the first stage of a battle decisively with the enemy's in them that you thank God that arms, even though they tion. Germany and Italy assumption that Hawaii was cap would naturally be followed by Europe would be a bloody slave Japanese-American war. On the A victory for the Japanese Navy they were your ancestors. And have gained the supplies will sooner or later float tured by our navy, the Japanese the capture of Hawail, and other pair to-day but for them." of most of the occupied to defeat on an ebb-tide of next step, the task of destroying Whether Japan / acts on he forces would undertake, as the operations, as described before countries. The consumpoll. The mechanised tanks the Panama Canal and the ingin offensive or on the defend ve

of oil and petrol in of Germany and its clouds squadron of America. wider war with America would certalais

If the Japanese Navy succeeded | be Ditzkrieg has been of dive bombers, bereft

the bomb- oil, become mere lifeless

fronmongery

great

in crushing the American Fleet in the Pacific finding on the rawi

coast of. America, would

(one invi

the

More than half Europe actually "bloody slaye - pen”; to-day ks to Hitler:: The best, hope slaves lies in the prowess of

men