1941-03-21 — Page 23

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THE CHINA MAIL, MARCH 21, 1941.

CHINA MAIL

N-WINDSOR HOUSE

LAND OF MISERY

Of all the countries brought under the dom- ination of Nazism by tank and bomb, the conquered land that was Poland is in the saddest plight. After the conquest it was divid- ed into three sectors. Ger- many kept for herself the industrial west, which was valuable, and annex- ed it to the Reich. Soviet Russia was permitted to take over the eastern pro-¦ vinces. The central ter- ritory became the Polish Gouvernement Generale. a sort of No Man's Land, German dominated, into- which could he herded all

the "undesirables"

Reich did not want.

the

Its

ultimate destiny was set:

forth as the farm and sweatshop of

queror.

the

Con

An all but impenetrable! wall of restrictions

sur-

rounds the Gouvernement! Generale; communication with those within is next to impossible. But the perfect censorship has yet to be devised.

News does leak out of the area, people do occa-¦ sionally escape from it..

MOSCOW INFLUENCE

IN ASIA

STALIN

AGREEMENT

NON-AGGRESSION

Note

Soviets offer f

non-

-aggression agreement way! rejected by Japan!

ELEPHANTS HAVE LONG MEMORIES

Nazis Cannot

I shall not soon forget the last and from what is known; day of lest year, for I spent

il

the City of London. good deal of it among the ruins at It would be foolish to deny the extent of the op-cendiary bombs.

damage done by the German in-¦

of the conditions therein it is certain that within its boundaries Nazi pression attains its bloom.

Win

TheNaval Situation

The basic fact of the naval situation is that the maritime lines

of communication all OVCT the world are controlled by the Brit- ish Fleet. The only exception is the Baltic Sea. There, owing to the seizure of Denmark, the en- trances are effectively controlled by Germany. This control does not extend to within the range of enemy shore batteries, so that the eastern entrance to the English Channel by the Straits of Dover is in dispute. Everywhere else,

By Lord Strabolgi

the control is effective; and this: despite the two major events since: the present war broke out the capitulation of France and the intervention of Italy.

Effective

control does not mean that occasional blockade runners cannot enter enemy con- trolled ports nor that surface rai- ders, usually disguised, such as the vessel recently engaged by the ormed merchant cruiser Carnar- non Castle, cannot escape on to the trade routes usually by way of the Norwegian coast which is itself held by the Germans. Fur- thermore, submarines owing to their facilities for evasion, operate against British merchant shipping as they did right through the last war. What it does mean

can

is that, apart from a certain per- centage of loss through enemy action, British merchant shipping can sail the seas and carry on an export and import trade and troops and their equipment can be moved freely to any theatre of war in British convoys.

It would not be practicable, for example, for the Germans to send an army by sea anywhere except in the Baltic. The invasion of the British Isles, it ever attempt- ed, would be hazardous and in- deed, would only be possible al

Esubmaring and the aeroplane add all if such air ascendancy could

to our difficulties,

This spring will be a very cruel one, but our

be courage will maintained by the reflection that Germany now cannot win.

Supplies from the United States

full} Especially near St. Paul's Cathe-cused if he decided our defeat was still lag behind the goodwill of

dral there are neres where to wall inevitable.

is in sufficiently good repair tuj One is apt to forget how much The cities are

when over remain

these devastated we depended in all our military crowded and in deepest row lanes of old London were no-

areas are rebuilt. The little nar-plans on the French army. That it should have gone out of the ery. Barbed wire fen- torious picturesque, but incre-

war just at the same time as we or concrete walls en- doubt

dibly unpractical and I have no lost the guns and supplies of our that the speeding up of own expeditionary force was a se the least desirable traffic that will result when the disaster the magnitude of which sections to form the ghet-will ultimately be of benefit to streets are widened and rebuilt

tos within which Jews are the nation. permitted to live.

But

still smouldering sulkily are a terrible

We shall have something to thank Hitler for amongst the Conditions inside the many reasons for reviling him. walls

these blackened ruins indescribably are wretched. Disease is kept sight. And a terrible condemna- down only by the unceas- ing efforts of the Jewish physicians who must live

tion.

I will not

pretend that

we

valued the ancient churches and other buildings as we should have done, for no people ever treasures

-By- Vernon. Bartlett

have recovered from it. We had

that country, and we have had bitter lessons here to teach us how long it takes to develop a war time economy. But President Roosevelt is a "non-belligerent" and not a neutral, and the re- sources of the New World are in-

exhaustible. So, too, must Our courage be.

cross at the top of it shining, as. forces. there and to whom the

its artistic

possessions at their

But our sorrow at their disap- pearance is sincere even though

we took them for granted.

Germans, from instincts real value. of self-preservation, al- low a limited amount of medical supplies. Condi- tions in the country-side rival the hardships in the towns:

our

ubroad decided we trucks still moved

this

-

be obtained by the Germans over the English Channel or the North Sea that the British warships could be driven away for a long enough period for the invading troops and their equipment to be. landed and for their lines of com- munication to be kept open for further supplies. In the Mediter- ranean the Italian Fleet has been so reduced by the air attacks on Taranto and the naval action off Sardinia that their armies in Lib- ya could not be alded. While the battle of Cyrenaica was being fought, British warships were In difficult moments ahead able to support the advancing'

the shall remember a sight of inde- army and bombard

Italian scribable beauty during London's positions and coastal road_with- fires. I was in Ludgate Circus out interference from the Italian- looking up the hill towards St Navy. Paul's: Most of the time smoke The defence of Egypt and the from a near-by fre entirely con- counter-attack cealed the Cathedral but occasion- force were made possible because on the invading we are only realising now that we ally it was blown aside for a mo- convoys of troopships and supply no right to expect that within six/ment, and behind the black clouds ships could be taken through the months of it we should take the by another fire, with the golden der the cover of

one saw the great dome, lit up Mediterranean to Alexandria un- British naval offensive so successfully against Italy. That we have been able to though it were in blazing sun- do so naturally gives us courage shine. And in front of

It is true that although much The second occasion when the magnificent background, railroad of the equipment and stores were across the Sent to Egypt round the. Cape of pessimists

convenience, at were lost was in September, when bridge over the road, carrying on Good Hope for Hitler began his mass bombing as usual despite the surrounding any time a large convoy can be Some of the churches that have raids. We had awaited these air chaos and terror. No picture could sent from one end of the Medit-

attacks uneasily since the begin- better have symbolised

erranean to the other facing only tour been destroyed .come into

the usual hazards of war. nursery rhymes and their towers ning of the war; and they had all struggle.

In the same way the British are or spires are as familiar to every the terrors of the unknown. We Londoner as his own doorstep. do not pretend to like them, but

now garrisoning Crete, and have (Continued from Next Col.) stationed naval and aerial forces And since the war began many we are now confident that they of us have become more aware of cannot bring about our defeat, forcements which have since been in that island, thus preventing The balance naval any Italian naval action in the ive have spent even should they be supplement- added.

aid of power would not be affected by Aegean to So much time on the roofs of high ed by invasion and the use

their campaign. traders or professional buildings watching the sky-line poison gas.

the completion of the new Ger- against the Greeks and blockad- men, are brought in by The destruction of December 29 weighed in the balance, and have tion of the French fleet is man-

been man warships. A certain propor- ing the Dodecanese Islands. The

often debated problem as freight car and turned out was such a blatant act of vandal-not been found wanting.

ned by adherents of General de whether air power could counter- to shift for themselves as ism that it has aroused more an- Hitler has achieved very great Gaulle and

balance British naval power, in the is cooperating with best they can.

ger than many rulds in which the successes in 1940, although not so the British Navy, and these in- Mediterranean would appear to be loss of life has been heavy but great as he promised his Nazis a clude the old battleship Courbet solved. Similarly the Italian gar- Abyssinia and East In the Soviet provinces where the presence of military year ago. Half a dozen states have which was completely reconstruct- risons in matters are no better. Yet objectives made them a little less become his slaves, But we have ed and re-boilered in 1929. Even Africa can neither be reinforced

and now the heartening proof that the if Germany obtained the use of nor supplied by sea there is an endless and And although I spent hours on Axis powers are not infallible. the French warships which adhere therefore living on their accumu- aimless migration of mis- the night of December 29 watch- They have made two crowning to the Vichy Government, Britain Iated stores.

ing these fires, the largest and military blunders in six months. would still have sufficient margin German naval losses since the erables from the Soviet most terrible I had ever seen, Hitler. might have succeeded had to maintain effective control of outbreak of war, and especially the Norwegian campaign, have hell to the Nazi Hades and their very senselessness strength-he invaded us immediately after the sea routes,

ened my conviction of our coming the collapse of France, when our To meet this situation, the been so heavy that only two. from the Gouvernement victory."

troops were unarmed and our na- German High Command is at large warships

the original Generale to Nazidom, as From the smouldering ruins tion benumbed by the fall of its tempting to counter the British German Fleet survive. These are rumour falsely spreads a towards a brighter horizon. Why?

one can look out with confidence ally.

blockade by Sinking merchant the battle-cruiser Scharnhorst and Mussolini might have reached ships with submarines, long, range the Lutzow "pocket-battleship", One hope that life may be less Because we have survived two the Suez Canal had he ordered aircraft, surface raiders and by formerly the Deutschland.

periods of gravest crisis during Graziani to push forward, what the laying of minefields, usually heavy cruiser of the Hipper class the past year and have not been ever the cost, at that same period, from aircraft at night. This coun- and, at the most, four light cruis- In Poland the opera- broken by them.

ers survive. One heavy cruiser, since we were suddenly so- ter- ter-blockade is aided by the use While the whole night sky of ribly outnumbered, in Northern of French. ports, notably Brest the Prinz Eugen, may be ready tions of the "new order" London was lit by flames as never Africa and could spare so little In and Lorient, giving access direct next year and two new battle- are untrammeled, for all since the great fire of · nearly the way, of reinforcements.

to the Atlantic and also by mak ships, the Bismarck and Tirpitz, three hundred years ago; Pre- opposition has been piti-zident Roosevelt was telling his and it will not be pleasant, der flotilla of submarines. The sink of battle of the British Navy con- We have now to face u blockade,ing use of the considerable Italian will be completed soon. The line lessly crushed and the people how convinced he was of man submarines can occrate from ings of merchant ships have reach sists of 14 dreadnoughts out of closed frontier keeps the our victory.

the coast of France and we can ed a serious level and it has taken the 18 at the beginning" of And yet twice during the låst not operate from the coast of Ire-time for the British counter-men- war and certain important rein- world from looking in. year anybody could have been ex-1 land. The cooperation between thesures to be brought into play. (Continued at foot of Preceding Col.)

Newcomers by the thou- prosperous

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once

arduous elsewhere.

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For for approaching enemy bombers.

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