1941-05-30 — Page 23

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THE CHINA MAIL, MAY 30, 1941.

CHINA MAIL

WINDSOR HOUSE

WHERE FREEDOM IS

It has become an axiom that the people of Britain possess a courage, a de- termination and a cheer- fulness under difficulties and hardship, that has never been surpassed. That recognition that life contains something great- er than mere personal comfort and money, has again been proved by the remarkable response to the War Weapons Week inaugurated in London. The sum asked for, large enough to daunt the most. enthusiastic, was £100.- 000,000. This was the goal. towards which the spon- sors were to strive. In less

than a week, the figure| was reached and when the fund was officially closed it was found that British War funds were £120,401,- 000 the richer.

If London had been un- touched by the war, if her rich business houses had remained intact and her

• people had been leading

*

their normal existances

in their own homes, the amount gathered would} have been remarkable, but in a city systematically bombed for months, a city which has thousands

of homeless, a city where

NEUTRALITY

5

WHO

"DIDAT?

VALERA

THAT

RUFFLED

SUSCEPTIBILITE

CONSCRIPTION

STOP playing at

being FRIENDS!

As an American who has been anything but self-interest.

נון

We

can

You, Your newspapers

NUTE men further

between

survival Fu

1

never

have

afield than

many hundreds of small dent in Britam for more than the British, are fighting for sur-

own Sur- on brief trips. as well as big business three years, with yearly visits to vival. We Americans, in backing New York and Washington, save

the United States, I ain gravely you, are backing our

Both New York and Washing- people have been depriv-perturbed by the state of Anglo-vival.

Seventy per cent. of the Ameri-ton are artificial cities, far less of the United ed of all their stock, a city American relations.

On the surface they are splen-

people to-day only dimly tepresentative

States than London is of Eng- where taxes are already did, underneath they reveal tries realise thus, as at least seventy hand, Wales, Scotland, and North- grievous, and where mat-tions and strains.

Britain per rent. of the British failed to

ern Ireland. A small nority in

see ally connection erial damage is such that and America

that hope

Czechoslovakia's to rebuild will require through this war we may be able their own.

to create solidarity in the Eng- the many millions,

world. But

A growing number of Ameri- Ish-speaking

that realise cans

American amount collected leaves have first to win the war.

present policies pursued security is vitally linked to Bri- one breathless.

by Britain will neither impress tish security. Those are the pro- the ple on whom you can count, for the American people with Hitler has received his seriousness of the problems they are acting on reasoned con- the most em- which face you, and us, to-day, victions and not from sentimental nor with the desirability of an admiration, phatic answer that any Anglo-Saxon quion. If either is man could receive. He to be achieved it must be on a must know now that all basis of realism and knowledge.

The first reality we must face his bombings are in vain, is this. No nation is motivated by that his dream of de-

answer

The

"In

in the earlier and perhaps Wendell Willkie was an-

could Propaganda persuade seventy-five per

By Helen Kirkpatrick

With rare and notable excep- ts, your diplomatic staffs have talked to Americans as they would to colonials. Lord Lothian was such an exception. We loved him. We ceased being colonials one hundred and sixty-five years ago, and we don't like being talk- we were still

culonials.

ed to as though

probably We don't pretend to have built cent.up a culture in a century and a of the American people to declare half as old as yours, but we don't to-morrow. Offcially you like to hear it called "bathroom war

culture," which it is not.

Our faults and weaknesses are If you and we many and great. are genuinely anxious to build moralising the British The war was producing a

together a stable world, you will need to be tough. people is, and will remain, new order of chivalry,

We will often give gratuitous

will a dream. The result of the where knights were found

advice: we

want to dash ahead where you think caution War Weapons Week is an in "the back streets and

best, and we will often hang back assurance positive and lanes of Britain."

from accepting our responsibili- irrefutable that the these people," he added, have decided against propaganda ties; we will move too slowly for

too times,

quickly nt You want that sense.

the you at British people will never "burns the finest flame of in

We will want to drive United States, so your statesmen others, submit to savagery and courage the world has say, to make up its own mind hard bargains, but we will make

and to act in its own best in-generous gestures. bondage. Hitler himself ever seen."

terests.

You may not believe that one Two Americans intellectually hundred and fifty-odd years are convinced are worth a hundred sufficient to make history; we do.

Elizabeth

"Tree Page's emotionally inspired, if you are

of looking at the problem from a Liberty" gives an excellent clue'

of our mentality. It shows how ance and hate, declared stirred with similar en- ing at it, as any one would admit yet how different.

To run a justified in doing,

delicate plece of who that to fight against Brit-thusiasm. Unfortunately, from the point of view of imme-machinery,

expert an ain would be suicidal.

matters Uttle knows machinery would be em- the written word is poor diate survival-it

whether you secure American ployed. Yet in the American sec- The spirit of Britain to- stuff compared to actual assistance by one means or an- tion of the Foreign Office at the. moment there are only two men day is such that every experience and perhaps other.

But If we are to win the peace who have ever been in the United visitor to its shores is Hong Kong's "apathy," after the war, we must avoid a States the one ten years ago for struck by its grandeur about which so much is repetition of that black period in five years, and its force. Mr. Menzies, heard, lies in the fact that Anglo-American relations which cently as professor in an eastern Australian Premier, on re- Britons here fail to grasp Let us build a solid structure: Knowledge of the east gives no turning home expressed the full implications of let us study and recognise our better, pleture of the United States own and each other's faults. Let than intimacy with Mayfair re- this sense of the intan- the European War. We us propagandise the unconvert-veals Britain.

Your policy, presumably as British Em- gible strength of the are, however, we believe, ad in our midst with sound argu-

ments and not with sentimental formulated in the

Bassy in Washington, pre- people when he said that the same people as live in trippery.

We must know each other bet-vents, you from doing the kind of no account he had ever the "streets and lanes" of

tor than we do... We must sur-propaganda which would bring read of the bombings be- Britain, and there seems fore going to Britain no reason why we too could possibly do justice cannot answer the call as to the magnificent people readily as London has of the Mother Country.done.

saner days of his career, other distinguished visi before his vision was tor who returned to the totally blinded by arrog- United States of America long-range point of view.

If you are not-if you are look- much you and we are alike and

that you are

followed the last war.

university.

the other more re-

Washington,

mount the obstacles, created by, a the United States into the war, common basic language. And yet your policy as drawn

At the present time, and for up in London and many years past, the British Em- doing nothing to make real basy In Washington has been friends of the British and Ameri- alled with men who never learn- dan poople, once the threat of ed to know the United States. common danger is removed."