1941-03-26 — Page 7

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THE CHINA MAIL, MARCH 26, 1941.

CHINA MAIL

WINDSOR HOUSE

COL. LINDBERGH

Colonel Lindbergh has been at it again, and. much more disturbingly on this occasion for the Lease and Lend Bill has been passed and the pur- pose of his further inter- vention can only be to at- tempt to sabotage the bid for national unity and national effort.

Astoundingly. if Co- lonel Lindbergh is at all! sincere, he refuses to draw any moral distinc- tion between regimes which invoke a reign of violence and those which seek ways of peace and freedom. Does right or wrong make no difference to the erstwhile hero of the afr

as long as hej thinks himself secure?

I SEE

NOTHING

BRAVE LITTLE ADOLF!

Labour Vitality

Hitler's Hidden Weakness

Mr. Cordell Hull. to back his belief in the coming victory of the British Empire, has declared that the German armies are spread very thin. It is indeed true. There are German armies in France, in Belgium, in Holland, in Norway, in Denmark, in Poland, in Hungary, in Rumania, in Italy, We do not know how many, but the total of these armies of oc- cupation must be at least two mil- lion men,

The problem of victualling them is rendered easier by the fact that they batten on the conquered or intimidated territories. But they

must be supplied with many things which they cannot obtain locally:

By Britannicus

or-

transport equipment, military stores, petrol, special foodstuffs. This requires a tremendous ganisation of transport and sup- ply, itself a heavy drain on Ger- many's national manpower.

It is likely, moreover, that these occupying troops have to be fre- quently changed. The atmosphere of cold-shouldering or open hosti. lity in which they move among the subjugated or subordinate peoples is intensely demoralising. Furthermore, they are in danger, in such circumstances, of hearing 'the truth about the war from the British radio or other non-Nazi sources. An expeditionary force in a fever-ridden tropical zone, where white men could not long keep their health and vigour, would not be more difficult to maintain than Hitler's garrisons in conquered countries.

The Lindbergh case seems to deal solely with material factors in its summing up of the supposed prospects in *Europe. There are moral factors, so-called impon- derables, which enter heavily into the equation. If suffering and destitu- tion are involved in a pro- | longed British drive, what, of a Nazi victory under -the sugar-coating of a A number of American corres- "negotiated peace?" In cently asking for an assessment the occupied countries it of Labour's influence in the Chur- could be only a smoulder-chill government. That is not an easy matter to undertake. For, in ing truce, a period of the first place, much of that in- fluence is necessarily screened slave-labour efforts at

from the public view; and, in the production, and ultimate second, not a little of the essen- discovery that military: tial work Labour Ministers have vital share in securing its publi- is one of the half dozen supreme | overgrown flesh rather than bone

accomplished-and this is parti- cation and domination cannot feed cularly true of Mr. Attlee-re-character. people.

Throughout the OC- cupied area forces are;

launch some kind of an offensive, but will not have to sustain it alone. By contrast, any system which has to rely on an appeal to lawlessness and a glorification of brute -force has within it the seeds of its own destruc- tion.

pondents have written to me re-

veals itself in the decisions of De- partments not directly under Labour control,

Attlee and his colleagues accept- ed that woeful experiment; if Mr. Amery's plans for India left the issue where it stood before, the Labour Ministers bear their part in what I think is Mr. Churchill's main error of judgment.

By-

Harold Laski

In determining

without a trace

duc

H

diffidence which

generous fault, but one the magni. tude of the present issues makes a dangerous one. Perhaps, too, his own special zest for London makes him too tender of vested interests in local government which need to be handled far more roughly. But my own feel- ing is clear that he is on top of his work, and that, as Minister, he

its administrators this

country has produced since Lord Haldane.

Mr. Hugh Dalton, as Minister of Economic Warfare, has a post the implications of which are far more narrow than when he

now

Hitler's problems of lines of communication are wholly differ- ent from those of the British Em- pire. Our lines are like limbs--- healthy, wieldable instruments of action, even if they are exposed to fracture. His are like the veins and arteries of a bloated and dropsical body. His empire is

and muscle.

Yet we must not be deluded into Of the separate Ministers, Mr.

underrating his strength. By Attlee appears least in the public

summoning his forces to a parti- view and is quite definitely the

cular point he can, for the time Certain general things may be most influential. Shy, undramatic,

belog, deploy an `immense con- ready to spring into being said at once. The Labour Minis-

of egotism, he undertook it before the German centration of power. Those two to throw off the yoke. Brilters have a full share in all the prefers to work behind the scenes. conquest of France and the Low million or more troops, of occupa- central decisions of the War Ca- He is slow to make up his mind. Countries. It is not easy. tion are but a fraction of his total tain doubtless must binet. They have responsibility, but, once he has made it up, he to judge his work since armies. Their existence does not therefore, for the achievements. has persistence that carries almost all of it is of a neces- not less than for the blunders. If great weight. His fault is an un-sarily confidential character. It is gether an expeditionary force for prevent film from gathering to-

Dakar was not a Labour plan, Mr.

to tends significant, I think, that Mr. Dal-ac attack on Great Britain or Ire make him silent where speech is ton who, before the formation of land or a march into yet un- called for. But anyone who has the Churchill government, was the occupied territory in Europe. seen him as constantly and con- best-hated Labour member in the tinuously in action as I have will House of Commons, has a very

It is in the more distant future, yield no primacy to any Minister different reputation among the when Hitler's great effort of 1941 but Mr. Churchill himself for the Tories to-day. They know that, has been repelled, and when the value of the counsel he has not less than Mr. Churchill him- Empire's striking power is stend!- brought to the war effort. It is self, he is out to beat Hitler; and ly growing, that they may prove But it is not beyond the mark characteristic of him that neither they know that he has the special a fatal weakness. It will be then to attribute certain special em- bad news can perturb him nor kind of energy the character of that, the resistance of the sub- phasis to their urgency. To them, good give him undue confidence. his post demands. No Labour jugated peoples will be at its most above all, are due the great im- He has the respect of all, and the Minister had so difficult a past to effective. Hitler may then be No, it is not simply that provements in agricultural wages, more respect, the more intimately live down among his critics. My faced with the choice between

old age pensions, the treatment of he is known. Britain must win. Some the unemployed, compensation for

own judgment is that they re-withdrawing his forces from the cognise in him a formidable mas- scene of each national uprising Mr. Bevin was the outstanding ter of the art he requires for his and sending still more soldiers to thing very much bigger war injuries, the increases in pay

to the armed forces and their de- figure in the

trade union world function.

hold it down. That would be a than Britain or America pendents. Without Mr. Bevin's when he became Minister of Lat

choice between conserving his must win the tremendous powerful aid, it is, I think, cer-bour. He has done some admir-

tain that industrial relations, able work there. Above all, he! The outstanding fact about the strength at the expense of his struggle now going on, would have been far less smooth has given the trade unions the Labour Ministers is the fullness prestige and conserving his pres- There must be a victory than they have been; and it is status that was their due in the of their unity and collaboration tige at the expense of his strength. above all because the workers councils of the government, and with the Prime Minister. Partly, It, would be the beginning of the won, in the interests of all have such confidence, in their re- he has seen to it with the know that is the depth of the common end.

have confronted; the world, for the idea of presentatives that the phenomenal ledge born of long experience, danger they

. The Iron ring of British world increases in war output have taken that the standards of labour are partly, it is the wisdom of ME. freedom under law, of place. It is an open secret that not relaxed at any point where Churchill in paying great atten- power is slowly closing upon the security from aggression, the administration of the very danger to the workers health is tion to their views in those fields Nazis. Inside Is still another ring, difficult problems connected with involved. He has Initiated half a of which they have special know immobile now but ready to crush of adjustment, by peaceful interned allens has greatly a dozen experiments of limportance, ledge, Critics ask, in bewilderment the inner kernel of Hitlerism when proved since Mr, Herbert Morri- His public utterances have given how Socialists can agree so well the ripe moment comes. It is com- son became Home Secretary, and him perhaps the widest audience with a Prime Minister who, all posed of the imprisoned peoples of There was a time when he, and his vivid, Assistant Secre- of any Minister except Mr Chur his life, has been their ardent op Europe, who will one day turn tary, Miss Ellen Wilkinson, have chill; and it is already clear that ponent. There is a very simple upon their gaolers, Then will the every attempt at flying begun, at least, to tackle the shel- when the lines of reconstruction answer to this view. Mr. Chur- Nazis, learn with sickening clarity had failed. There was ter problem (they have not yet begin to be laid, Mr. Bevin will chill's one aim is victory, and to that a prison-house can entomb then, no indication that solved it) with energy and im count as vitally as anyone on the it he is prepared to sacrifice all its own creators.

agination. These next weeks will Labour side.

the preconceptions of his past' the limitation that kept bring forth an official statement

career. The one thing he asks of from the British government on Mr. Morrison, üfler a brief any proposal is what it contr

der's judgment of persons, and humans on the ground its war aims of the first impor- perind at the Ministry of Supply, butes to victory.

in his grasp of the large aspects would ever be overcome. tance; and it is again an open where he did na Herculean job of

of strategy. He has filled a vital I have left, to the last the posi-role with delicacy and vigour. secret that Labour Ministers, and reorganisation, has, now found, I Colonel Lindbergh sees especially. Mr. Attlee, have had a think, the task to which he is tion, of Mr. A. V, Alexander, the All-in-all, the position is not ideally suited both by tempera- First Lord of the Admiralty. unsatisfactory, The great teats, of ment and experience Mr. Mor- Since, Mr. Churchill is himself course, have still to come, when rison touches nothing that he does Minister of Defence, and the the problems of peace and recon- wo He is clear-headed, In- times, it is inevitable that Mr. face of immense peril, Mr. Chur- not make clearly his own hand greatest First Lord of modern struction; begin to loom In the cisive, and works with an energy Alexander should to some extent chill has taught his colleagues fo that is remarkable. If he has a be overshadowed by his greater work with a single mind to vic fault, it is that often excessive colleague. But the Navy has great tory, That, in itself, is a vital ser tenderness for his own officials, a confidence both in Mr. Alexan- vice to the future of civilisation.

means.

..

"no indication that war is a thing of the past."

Yet the organisation of If no one had tried to fly, justice in nations has or if no one had tried to made the medieval feudal establish a reign of law wars a thing of the past, well, what?...

Abito and t