1941-04-07 — Page 39

THE CHINA MAIL, APRIL 7, 1941.

CHINA MAIL

WINDSOR HOUSE

DEMORALISING NORWAY

to

The Nazi attempt demoralise and disinte- grate Norway proceeds with Teutonic persistence. An intensification of po- lice control in West Nor- way is reported; and among other devices of the creators of the new order are the compulsory use of the Nazi form of salute and the revival of

certain pagan customs. such as the sun festivals! which were held in the Scandinavian and Anglo- Saxon countries before they were converted to Christianity. The display of rune inscriptions has long been thought a suit- able medium for inculcat- ing moral virtues into Nazi youths, and no doubt it would suit Hiller very well to paganise as much of Europe as he was able. He recognises in the Christian religion an es- sentially supernational force, the tendency of

which is towards the equality and brotherhood of all men. Both tenden- cies are abhorrent to the

MATSUOKA

"The Trouble? He Wants Something To Take Home!”

Our Home Army

Since

*

By

John Gordon

supposed to be Nazis, who class the Chris- facing the dangers of invasion tian Church, Marxism, any day now, according to Hitler's revent speech, our attention has and Freemasonry to-| been turned to our Home Guard> gether as opponents of Every now and agam in one of These Flot Gospel" speeches. their favourite tenet of a which are intended to take t master-race. The idea minds of their perplexed people

off realities, Hitler or one of his | services of in the Civil Defence that before God all men chef henchmen will make aj Services like the Air Raid Ser- are equal is destructive of sneering reference to that extraor-

section of dinary new

men with

Britain's

vices, the Fire Brigades, the tran- sport and the hospitals.

These men know every inch of the ground over which they will fight. They know every house. be- Every door is open to them, cause they are known. Int the months that have passed since Dunkirk they have constructed, elaborately concealed but power- blocks ful pill boxes, and roud

first which are manned on the alarm by men well armed, with plenty of ammunition of all sorts ready for defence to the last man.

These hidden dumps of RI- over munition are scattered all the Home Guard Company's area.

to be found. They ensure that no man will ever be short of a cartridge or a bomb.

པ

They looked a motley crew at These speeches might give you first. They could not look ather

that the the mpression

Home wise for they had no uniforms. in-Guard is a hand of undisciplined, only on the sleeve of their jac-Only the men know where they

doddering old

are pitch-kets a khaki armlet with the lel- torks playing at Boy Scouts, To ters L.D.V.--which stands for Lo- listen to the speechmakers who cal Defence Volunteers, the ori- really should and probably do, ginal name. know better, you would imagine that the first hundred invaders to

This

come.

Each district of the country, and its very often each factory has own Home Guard unit. Just as in the Army the basis of each force is a company, but unlike the Army the companies of the Home Guard are trained to operate al- sur most independently of the

companies. They are in fact trained and intended for purely guerilla warfare.

Nor will there be any food dif- ficulty for every man has in his home two

rations. days fron When the call comes these will sustain him for the first two days until the food supply system comes into operation.

Now do not Imagine that be- cause most of the men are above

as they were then, but mentally they are even tougher.

the whole conception on lighting forces. which the Nazi system Europe is to be reared.

Another bastion of tegrity and justice be- tween man and man is the law, and this too the Nazis

Winston Churchill later gave are trying to destroy in

set foot in Britain, would sweep] then the name of Home Guard. Norway. It is to the en-this motley force out of the way

The Hon** Guard is nothing during credit of the Nor- without a moment's trouble.

Tike the regular army. Its pur- wegian Supreme Court of

If they ever come to Britain) pose is quite different; its train- Justice that all its mem- with that idea in their heads, they ing entirely novel. bers resigned rather than are in for a severe shock.

Home Guard is one of Britain's It is a national force composed military age they are inferior sol- accept the decrees of the most brilliant improvisations of of local units who are intended to idlers. Most of them served for

It is well armed. It is be used solely for a local purpose | several

years in the last war. Reich Commissioner, Ter- the war.

rendy for battle to the last button.that is taking the first shock of They may not be so physically fit boven, which manifestly it is not afraid of the enemy, but an invasion wherever it should violate the basic statutes on the contrary is anxious to meet him. And most important of all, of the country. They will in spite of the sneers about it, it take no hand in adminis- is a very tough body, with just

one ambition to be tougher still. tering laws which in their

It came into being as a mani- eyes, and in the eyes of all

festation of the real spirit of Bri- honest men, are partisan tain. Just after Dunkirk this and designed solely for country awoke

prise to the realisation that it the purpose of political stood in imminent danger of be coercion. Terboven's ing invaded. Now Britain has "People's Tribunal" and not been invaded since 1066. It always regarded invasion as one the Supreme Court of the of the things that just could not independent State of Nor-happen to it. And in its charac

teristic way it refused either to way are incompatible: think about such thing or to Thanks to the United States they In are now completely armed. They cannot function side prepare for it.

fact there are now more rifles by side, and the Nor- Dunkirk and the fall of France than men and they know how to wegian Judges will not changed its outlook in a flash. It use them. They have also

realised suddenly that the inva-come machine-gun experts, Tom. consent to administer a der might be here in a week. The 'my gun experts and experts in travesty of justice. Al-British are a people who though all sorts of tricky things like the normally slow to move, can move famous Molotov Cocktail, the ready some hundreds of quickly when necessary. This deadly bomb in a bottle, first in- to deal with tanks in patriots have been con- time they moved very quickly. A vented call went forth for every able-Spain. centrated in the first poli-bodied man to volunteer for the

Every square foot of Britain is tical prison to be estab-defence of his own home district,

so that the invader should be now guarded night and day by Men are prouder to be a pri- lished in Norway.

Jought field by feld, street by Home Guards. No parachutist vate in the Hame Guard than n There could descend from the skies, no Captain in the Army. If there is Just as the People's street, village by village.

has never been any question of plane could land without a Home ever war on the soil of Britain, Court is a travesty of the surrender in Britain.

Guard soldier giving the alarm. the most glorious episodes of all The instant the alarm is given, will be those, in which the Home Supreme Court, so Quis- One million

hundred every „able-bodied sevan

man in the Guard play a part. When an in- it. ling's Nasjonal Samling is thousand men answered the call area will don his uniform, take vasion comes they will beat

be-his- rifle, and move swiftly to his Hitler may laugh

nt them now, a travesty of the Nor--practically every fit man

tween the ages of 18 and' 05 who post to encircle, trap or harry but the last laugh of all will be

theirs. wegian Parliament.

was not actually in the fighting' the invadér.

with some

a

They are now clad like

They know that if they meet an invader they must be at their posts to hold him at all costs until the regular troops arrive. They have blocks ready to close every road and every ficid. There wil. be no sweep through a panic other stricken

Britain as there was through France. It is the Home Guard that will sec to that. Every group of invaders will be penned in one little district, and it is the Intention of the Home Guard that i. they shall be slaughtered where penned. The Home they shall Guard has every intention of see- ing to that. And it has the men, means, and the strength and the: toughness to see to it.

the

Army in battle dress, the only distinctive touch being their arm- Even that is to go shortly.

let.

be- Much of the good fighting qual- Ity of the Home Guard comes from their democracy. There has never been such a truly nation- al army. There is no question of rank because of social position. The men, in effect have chosen their own leaders, and they have chosen them because they have confidence in them.