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THE CHINA MAIL, MARCH 10, 1941
CHINA MAIL
WINDSOR HOUSE
AFRICAN CAMPAIGN
It is an old military| adage that successes at the periphery are often dangerous because they may divert attention and resources from the centre. In estimating the steadily growing victories of the British forces against the Italians in Africa we can- not afford to lose sight of this principle. The war will be won or lost, even- tually, in or over the Bri- tish Isles or Germany: soon or late one of these
countries must be the main theatre of war if the conflict is not to end. merely in a stalemate. But the British victories. in Africa have been so un- interrupted and sensa- tional, and the extent of the Italian rout so great and obvious, that the cumulative moral and po litical results, even apartį from the immediate mili-| tary gains, cannot fail to be profound.
In attempting to fore- see the next great move of the war, Germany
re-
mains the great mystery. On paper, the military power of Germany is now tremendous. It has the most powerful army in the world, organised some 250 divisions. Last
in
SMITH YATES ON PASSAGE
OF THE AID BRITAIN BILL
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BRITAIN
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HEAD-ACHES FOR HITLER
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Lady Reading
By June Head
Spring its equipment was In May 1938, when it became shown to be superior to apparent that women would have
share in that of any other nation; to do their
helping 10 run the civil defence of the cou11- it has since been able to try, Sir Samuel Hoare, who had force the workers of other been approached by representa nations to supply it with isations anxious to be of ser- foodstuffs and
vice but a little puzzled as to how they could set about it material. Its air force is went to call
Reading, lead!', which is apt to rise only on Ludy still estimated to be far She is the kind of person
to too readily in moments of crisis, whom people instinctively turn in is silenced by the habit of indivi-
She has a command-dual initiative.
war
tives of various women's organ-
The result of this visit WA5
SO
that the
cry of
sistance of a newsreel camera- man, get down to work.
and
This system of working, the fact that it does work, is due to Lady Reading's flair for char- acter and trust in her own judg- ment. As a result of it, all the helpers in the W.V.S. share the feeling that their work 'Give us a
is fun, that there is enjoyment as well as necessity in the doing of it.
Getting The Best
Freedom
Army
If there is one spot more than Britain itself 'which is the Free Empire's very own battlefield, it is the Middle East,
It provides the classic example of what free men will do for a Commonwealth that gives them more liberty of opinion and ac- tion than any in the world's his- tory.
The example docs not even end there. With this multi-sided war machine of the Middle East are many free warriors from Nazi- enslaved countries.
Gathered over thousands of miles from northernmost Pales- tine to southernmost Tanganyika, frcm the western frontiers of
By John Cashel
Egypt and the Sudan to castern Transjordan and the Red Sea is the greatest Empire Army and most diverse Foreign Legion ever known,
The cosmopolitan character of this Freedom Army No. 2 at least equals that of the Freedom Army No. 1 that guards Britain's own shores.
A teeming multitude of many tongues and many faiths, with but a single aim, Mussolini has guessed its numbers at well over a quarter of a million. That may be more or less than the truth.
Several divisions are from the Mother Courtry, sent out and reinforced since the
war, over and above the strong garrisons that were already in Palestine and Egypt.
Bestde them are Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, the Indian force of Britons, Sikhs, Pathans, Gurkhos, Mahrattus, cach one ni whose countries has not only poured man-power into the Middle East cockpit over the long sea and land routes, but also puns, munitions, all the com- plicated material paraphernalia of modern mechanised war down to food and clothing, including such tropical equipment as khaki drill uniforms, pith topees and mus- quito nets.
Among this diverse Army you will and side by side in Palestine the Jews and Arabs, who have buried their old enmities, because the one is threatened by Nazi persecution and the other by the menace to the freedom of the religion of Islam. theatre of war in which the horse There too, in this the only
is being used—are some of the felv remaining regiments of
British horred cavalry and the Palestine
Yeomanry.
Still
across
Still farther south, in Kenya,
The Under-Fifties greater in size than that emergency
more picturesque, the border in British-mandated of Britain. There are in ing presence, a humorous eye, it
tul Lady Reading should Transjordan, js the Frontier theory all sorts of military of energy that never expends it- deep, precise voice, and the kind
champion the cause of the under-Force of Arabs, with British offi- attles is only fair, because she | cers, whose commander is Major moves now open to Hitler: self in trivial words or gestures. Lady Reading's capacity for herself is well under fifty. But John Bagot Glubb, O.BE., M.C., an attack
managing people without letting it isn't, after all, a question on Greece that in Juue of the same year the
of Arab-garbed "mystery man of the them know they are being man- fairness; it all comes back to that desert. through Bulgaria, Yugo-women's organisations found aged is exercised most brilliantly intangible matter of personality. In Palestine and in Egypt -- slavia or Italy; an attack Women's Voluntary
The at themselves incorporated in
committee meetings. These The Arst
impression on meeting the focal point of these Middle Services for she directs as 'an expert conduc- her is of serenity. Yet her life is East operations - also stand side on -Gibraltar through Civil Defence. By October the tor directs his orchestra, com- made up of rapid journeys all by side with British, Dominion Spain; and
whole country was alive to the pelling out of them
the balance over finally, an fart of A.R.P. To-day the W.V.S.
the country. She spends and Colonial troops, Free French-- of harmony that she wants. She three days a week touring the men and Syrians who crossed the "all-out" assault on Great is the largest organisation of its has proved that to get the best counties; she has motored 45,000 Syrian border when Petain's Britain itself by air or an rolled membership of 700,000.
kind in the world, with an en- out of people you must make miles and covered several thou- France capitulated, Free French-
high demands on them.
Treat sand more by train in the two men from France, Poles, Czechs, attempted invasion.
To speak of the Chairman of them as if they were highly valu-
years in which she has been Egyptians. Why, with all this pow- Reading' is socially
the W.V.S. as the Dowager Ladyed and their standard of response working for the W.V.S. If there! Some, of them have their own
correct, but will be accordingly high.
like has been heavy bombing some- commanders-in-chief,
Gen. er and all these possibili- oddly misleading. It would, be Her office at the W.V.S. head- where, she visits the scene to see Kopanski, who is leading the ties, has Hitler seemed in difficult to imagine a woman more quarters in Tothill Street is un- for herself how her organisation Poles.
intrinsically representative of the recent months, apart active qualities of youth
than pretentious, workmanlike. On the is working. In emergencies she
wall behind her hangs a large- has a knack of turning up at the are the King's African Rifles, the from scattered air attacks Stella Reading - or, for that and merchant ship sink- She has spent
matter, more democratic-minded. scale map of England and Scot-right moment. When she is in her West African Defence Force and
that they the Rhodesian Regiment. most of her life land, marked out into the twelve office her staff now
What an Army regions where her are working at a hundred per
of Free Men! ings, to be
She civil defence conducting working, and working hard.
She has had been
cent, capacity. When she returns What an answer to Hitler's old lie administrators operate. Lord en
Reading's mainly a diplomatic of Viceregal staff for six years, when a staff of 820 workers, only 32 of after an absence, they realise that about the disunity and degeneracy fensive in the Balkans and in 1931 she became his second whom are paid; young and ener- they had only been putting in en of the British Empire!
infected with her eighty per cent. of effort. wife. Two weeks after the wed-getic women in France? Why has he ding Lord. Reading was recalled own insatiable appetite for work. But this remarkable woman's failed to strike some ter- from his honeymoon to take office To hold a responsible. position secret rests more than anything in rific blow somewhere? Is went back to her desk and back you must be over fifty and bristl- a commanding personality and Foreign Secretary. His wife in the W.V.S. does not mean that her curious ability both to exert there some hidden weak to work.
ing with qualifications. Lady conceal it. The concealment is ness in
Germany.
Running a collective body of Reading belleves in youth; in not deliberate; it grows out of her the magnitude of the W.V.S. calls giving youth, a chance to prove genuine interest in other people. This quality is illustrated by a shortage of some essential for exceptional administrative and itself. The public relations officer
organising powers. supply, a crack in the collective body is composed enters is Mrs. Benn, twenty-seven enjoyment that has, like her When that at the London W.V.S. headquar- anecdote she herself tells with un "collaboration” of the tirely of women, tact and per years old, and Mrs. Aitken at whole sense of humour, an as "new order," a failure of Lady Reading has both. She has publicity. The young people of ling by train, and a man in the
sonality are even more essential. twenty-five controls the overseas tringent quality. She was travel- India. morale? Or does Hitler perfected the technique of getting the W.V.S. themselves designed compartment, observing her unl- feel that he can afford to things done in the right way, by the becoming dark green uniform for became eversational on
getting the right people wait to build up his them. By giving as much res- by all members, from Lady Read-
to do which is worn with great effect the subject of the W.V.S.
'My wife's in it too,' he con- strength still further and ponsibility to as many people as ing herself to the latest recruit fined.
possible, By making people real who has performed her 00 hours 'She runs a conteen, Now what make every last prepara-ise that they have in themselves of service. They are encouraged do you do?! tion for a smashing blow potential strength and resource, to devise their own films, showbag 'I said Lady Reading, 'work in the Spring? Pleasant
09
as it would be to make lieve too much in the
the many-sided activities of the at hendquarters.' WIV:6%, There are no solemn.con- -Ah. Secretarial?' ferences, no. red tape.
These I write lettera and, that, kind, of
Lady Reading admitted.
this war.
17
To have put that Army there, to say nothing about its powerful Air Force, has been a feat of organ- isation far transcending anytning of short interior lines of com- the Nazis. with their advantage munication, have performed
The Navy saw through the thousands of miles of parts of it
of it over the long ocean routes sea from Britain, and other parts. from New Zealand, Australia and
Also from those countries it gave protection to guns, mutton and beer; to beef from far-away Argentine; to pètrol from the pipe lines of Palestine and Irak; to warplanes and munitions direct from the U.S.A.
Thousands of guns, thousands of tanks, lorries, armoured curs went their way while Mussolini's Fleet skulked in its harbours.
Even a single, Division, which owing to its increased fire-power power than its 16,000 equivalent of the last war, needs at least 250
the first of these supposi- Balkan bait and not to Young women get together, hatch wall her companion cone is substantially, smaller in man-7
tions it would be a fatal base her main plans on error for Britain to be- the second,
ojusi ai tqulina),
out an idea, give it a provocative
file like the successful Britannia soled her, that's useful work: tob, la a Woman get Lady Reading's. You can't all of you have im- approval, and then, with the a="" portant jobs.
247
1
tons of provisions it da
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