1941-03-05 — Page 7

THE CHINA MAIL, MARCH 5, 1941.

CHINA MAIL

"WINDSOR HOUSE

COMMUNIST

FRICTION IN CHINA

Absence of the Com- munist delegates

from

the sessions of the Peo-

ple's Political Council in Chungking

serves one

useful purpose. It ex- poses what many of the closest sympathisers of Free China have been at pains trying to hide: "That the essential points of dis- agreement between the! Government and the Communists go deeper than it has been comfort-. able to admit. That is not to suggest that the difficulties cannot even yet be ironed out. There! is one solid issue on which] both Chungking and Yenan can agree, the vital necessity of continued re- sistance to Japanese ag- gression.

Between conflicting ar- guments from both sides as to the merits of the dispute, there is clear suggestion that the faults, such as they are, do not lie entirely on one side or the other. That in its turn

SCUTTLED !

BULGARIA

5

IN THE TRUE NAZI TRADITION

"Crusade

For

Civilisation"

implies the necessity for a his book, "Crusade for Civilisa- the permanent beck and call of

spirit of give and take if that present-day "Imperialisms" a happy solution of an un-are the totalitarian nations and schemes may furnish a good

fortunate development is], to be found.

that the ambitions of all peoples should be free association by the tie of mutual consent. In compar- ing a commonwealth to the League of Nations, the author writes:—

machinery

af

coming to the surface?

paganda.

Page T

less than that of any foreign de- cupation, is it too much to hopej that the proved failure of this tyranny even to justify itself in Its own terms of military success; will produce a revulsion of Ge man sentiment which, if we know how to play up to it, will cause a mighty renaissance of Garman. civilisation along with a renounce- ment of Prussianism, super-Prus- sianism, and all their works?

The author is in no doubt, how- ever, that the Prussian spirit must be crushed. He writes:—

"One thing is clear. Even if we should win the war, the peace will be hopelessly lost unless, by orie means or another. It is possible to give Germany back her soul, and to woo or persuade her to for- sake the bondage of her present tyranny for membership of, and cominunion with, the Common→ wealth of free nations. For that no sacrifice will be too great, and no measure of forgiveness exces sive.

"What will remain lo be done with Peussia will present the hard- est problem of all. To deny the possibility of her ultimate con- version would be to despair of human nature. And the really great Prussian qualities of de- votion and self-sacrifice may be as powerful in the service of good as that of evil,

"But to change a spirit that has persisted and grown continuously for centuries is easier said than done. And until we have plain and practical proof of the Prus- sian being for, instead of against, civilisation, he must for his own good, and everyone else's safety, have his claws cut, and his jaws

uzzled.

There Must Be No Totalitarian Regime

1

"No principle of sane freedomn commands us to let a dangerous wild beast loose on the world. And Dr. Esme Wingfield Stratford in they hopefully assume, will be at that it is not the Nazi regime from

to hand over the natives of tropi- which we are fighting to deliver cal colonies against their wills, to the League politicians. tion" (Routledge, 7s. 6d.) shows

Germany, but that the German the tender mercles of a Power people itself is the enemy," and "The pros and cons of such that Hitlerism has to be accepted

wedded openly to the principles as the permanent sub-conscious and practice of tyranny, would enough evening's entertainment faith and religion of every Ger-beto touch a lower depth of crime for a debating society, or fill out man, which only force, continu- a lively pamphlet, but to wait till ously applied, can prevent from even than of lunacy. one of them whatever its merits in the abstract-has the remotest

"There must be no sort of chance of materialising, is to wait Generalissimo Chiang

"This belief, which would leave | Totalitarian regime; no gestapo, for the Greek calends. The most no ground for hope except in the Jewbaiting, or concentration Kai-shek came to a work-

of the sort that any practical man extermination or perpetual helo- "Our world commonwealth of will dare to envisage is the put-tage of the entire German people, camps; no militarisation of youth ing arrangement with the the future must have somethinging together again, and perhaps is the most suicidal form of pro- or gangs of storm troopers. The a certain reinforcement, of the Communists

more to bind it together than a broken - down because he

mere formal constitution like that Geneva, realised that it was only of the League. It is not ever. cer- by a supreme united effort tain that it will need to have a constitution at all. The British that China could hope to

Commonwealth gets on well resist Japan successfully. enough, and far better than the There had to be an end to League, without anything of the sort, unless we are to speak of the all fratricidal strife. But occasional imperial conferences as the price paid for this na- a sort of token organisation, tional unity it is now con- tended is the danger of Communist influence disproof, that international unity spreading over an ever- cannot be effected without some sort of super-State machinery, or widening area. It is being what our ancestors would have said, in fact, that the fear called a social contract. There are even thinkers like Mr. H. G. of Communist expansion ells, of whom one cannot speak in North. China is the without the deepest respect, who most disturbing factor in will not be content without a

"It is, I would submit, an en- tirely false idea, and one of which

the Commonwealth is a standing

world cabinet, with ministers and

the mind of the Central departments all complete. Government. But it would be. China's greatest tra gedy if an irremediable

*

"This time, perhaps, it may be got to work, given the spirit to Work it. But given that spirit, the League, or Commonwealth, may be trusted, at a pinch, to dispense with any machinery at all, and to

principles of freedom do not ex- "Even those of us who have not tend to allowing, gangsters to or- yet travelled in Southern or Wes- ganise their rackets in peace, or tern Germany, those who are too train up their children in crooks' young to look back to the time when leaders of British culture colleges." could look to Germany as a spiri- tual home, ought to know better In his Epilogue Dr. Wingfield than to speak of the countrymen Stratford sums up the policy and us a gentleman's agree of Goethe, of Beethoven, ΟΙ ment between genticmen. But this Durer,. of Martin

ideals of his. "Crusade for Civili- time there must be none of the species of barbarians and Huns, sation."

Luther; as a opposite sort to wreck it. Mem- or as having, within the span of bership must be confined to those one mortal life, become Prussian- who have the objects of the as-ised past praying for. sociation at heart, and in whose good faith it is reasonably pos- sible to confide..

thrive

“We peoples of the British Com- monwealth," he writes, "at last know the strength"as well as the "Our victory will be no victory unless we can confirm it by get-evil, of this devilry that has come ting the best part of the Germán up against us, and I do not think "My own belief, for what it is people back for civilisation, in- there is any one who doubts of our worth, is in trusting wholly; or as stead of repeating our · hideous much spirit

as possible, to the team blunder, after the last war, of own strength to meet it and, in cooperation between free peoples. of Prussia, For it was neither' or whatever happens to our bodies or of spontaneous and free driving them back into the arms dye time, to save our souls alive, Get on with the good work

of ginal sin nor the love of tyranny our possessions. civilisation; get into the habit of for its own sake that made the ed of its benents, let practice make pensable to him, but simply be depths of our common conscious working together, and having tast- German feel that Prussia indis- "It has penetrated the

very periect.

cause he had come to feel that ness that our defeat now will be nothing but the iron of Prussian the defeat of mankind, the death- discipline, entering his soul, could sentence on life itself; and that de save him from remaining, what he reat is therefore, and has got to be had been for centuries, the hope- unthinkable... less victim of his own incapacity to cumbine,,

No Ground For Hope®- -"It was the habit of the Spar- tans, the Nazis of clussical Greece," "There are others who want to snys Dr. Wingneld-Stratford; in split occurred at this form what they euphemistically his chapter whither Germany," term a world police, and will "to deciate a perpetual state of really consist of a polyglot army, war on their helots, just as the or Pretorian guard, with navy | Gernions" do by implication, on and air force attached, which will Jews Poles Czechs, and all such, hold a disarmed world at its But are we not coming very close mercy, and whose, commanders, to the some thing, when we argue !

stage in her united front. And nothing would serve Japan's interests better

*

Proved Failure Of

The Tyrant

"Now that he has had experi- creer in his own; dafly, ifier of a tyranny more crushing and merci

事

own

=

"Enough that we have only..our souls to rely on now, the Kingdom within us, a stronger and deeper certainty than that of our enemies. We are not-going--to. rail.

This is an interesting book full of constructive suggestions and discriminating, thinking people. will find if it much: that will help. them to face the problems"ɑI}ou time, says "Public Opinion,