THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1987.
'Pectoral Cough Balsam'
$125
por bottle
A valuable aid for Coughs,
Colds and all affections of
the Throat and Chest
Pleasant to take and entirely free
from all harmful drugs,
A.S. WATSON & CO., LTD.
ESTABLISHED 1841
TEL. 20016.
Musical Instruments
All Musical Instruments stocked by us are by makers of World-Wide Repute.
"COUESNON" and "PAN AMERICAN"
SAXOPHONES.
"BARDELLI" PROFESSIONAL PIANO ACCORDIONS
"HOHNER". MOUTH ORGANS
ETC., ETC.
Strings and. Fittings of the finest Quality.
NEW TYRES
FROM OLD
by the
SHALER PROCESS
OF
WORN-OUT TYRES GIVEN A NEW LEASE EFFECTIVE LIFE
FULL-CIRCLE
SHALER RE-TREADS
from $11.00 ..
HONGKONG Hotel GARAGE
Tol. 27778-9
The
Hongkong Telegraph.
WEDNESDAY, FEDNUARY 3, 1937.
in view
THEY FIGHT WITH THE INTERNATIONAL COLUMN
on
to
by Geoffrey Cox
E
ARLY on the grey
Leader of the first truly International Army since the Crusaders.
There
is the Garibaldi fighting units; Frenchmen who
**
morning of Sunday, November 8, the few people about in the streets of alarmed Madrid-for to many a rebel break through seemed likely to come at any hour-heard the steady Stubbs Road tramp, tramp of feet march- ing in perfect time, and saw, mounting the Gran Via, a column of troops in. heavy, khaki uniforms,
the Government militias began overcoats with thick woollen to show demoralisation under battalion of Italians, made up had fought in front of Verdun: the incessant machine gunritng of refugees who have waited a little Belgian who joined up collars, loose black caps. and bombing from the aft which years in Paris for a chance to because his father and mother'
were harried their retreat over the strike back at Mussolini, of were Communists, and he had Over their shoulders
from the Italian been a Communist all his life; slung service rifles of a very Castilian plain, the need for deserters
1 quite. "unpolitical". Italo- these international troops be- Abyssinian army. modern type. At the sides
American who had come from HITLER'S SPEECH.
came more plain, and the call
one They provide
of the Connecticut "because I WILS many
carried steel helmets. was sent out all over the world World reactions to the speech And behind them rolled lorries for at left wingers with any Column's chief leaders-dark, broke and couldn't get a job": Greeks, дл Austrian by Herr Hitler, in which he gave | piled high with machine guns. military experincce at all to join heavily-built Durrutti, friend of four
Mussolini in pre-war days. veteran of the February fight- réview of his four years' From the people who rushed up in Spain.
The British contingent num- ing in 1934. stewardship and touched
The five thousand men who the pavement edge, flsts domestic and world affairs, are clenched in greeting, voices had assembled by the start of bers cighty. They are the most what might have, heen expected, raised in
almost hysterical November, and who were hurried surprising types of all.
to the Madrid front, were drawn Half of them would be the
Canadian national, General subject-matter of the utterance. again and again, the same re- country with the exception of tall, curly-haired, cheerful men Kleber, veteran of the Russian None but those who shut their mark, "Have the Russians come Scandinavia and Albania, and of twenty or twenty-one whom Civil War, of fighting in Ger-
Can it be true?" eyes to the facts would dispute to help us?
from places overseas as far off one would expect to be doing many, and long years in China. nothing more political than lead- the claim by the Fuehrer that
But when I heard a clipped as French Indo-China.
ing a Rugger scrum. Some even.These were the men who were he has accomplished what he set Prussian voice shout as the line
marched into Madrid that Sun- wore their O.T.C. uniform, out to do four years ago; indeed, swung round the corner "Rechts he has consolidated the position Um," followed by orders in THERE is the Thaelmann majority were from Cambridge diately to the firing line.
Of the University men, the day morning, and taken imme of Germany and raised her French and Italian, I knew it Battalion of German emigres, and London.
And they are the men who was not Russians we were watch- men who had been in concen-
The rest were mainly tough have, to a great degree-though point which seemed impossible ing, but the first truly Interna- tration camps, a group of fair- when he get out on his
haired refugees from the Snar, little ex-soldiers who had fought one must not under-estimate the tional army since the Crusaders task.
a Catholic worker who eo hated in India or who had served with "backs to the wall" determina- For this, Herr, Hitler-the International Column.
the Nazi attitude to his church the Red Armies in China and tion of the Spanish militias
kept Franco out of Madrid. At that he had left a job in former men of the I.R.A.
Villawerde on that Sunday night Germany to join this fight,
one International Column soldier was placed with every four
been formed and drilled at
the Spaniards in the trenches; in the AND At their head was Max Beim- Barcelona during the previous
Dominions was one Austra- early hours of Tuesday morning Germans and British ler, who had escaped from a con- llan with all the wartime the towards the appeasement of two months. In the early stages centration camp and written a "Aussie's" gift of language, who sections attacked in the Casa de world conditions than he has of the Spanish Civil War foreign book about it, and who was was mewn down by a machine Campo and drove back the Moors done. His contribution towards volunteers were enrolled in the killed four weeks ago in the gun as he, alone, covered a re- there; and for weeks they have
ordinary Spanish militia, where University City,
treat of his section a few days borne the brunt of the fighting in the University City. Each Internal stability is an almost they served in battallons side by unparalleled achievement; it is side with the rank and file of For political commissar they
battalion uses its own language, One could tell of scores of but French and German pre- when we
come to international the hastily formed People's have tall, ascetic-looking Ludwig
Renn, ex-army officer, pacifist others-scores of Jews from dominate. affairs that we search in vain Army.
and emigre:
Poland, forming one of the best for constructive proposals, in But as the numbers of these Hitler's latest oration, towards volunteers rose to hundreds, a settlement of Europe's and as the extent of interna- troubles. From this angle, the tional Fascist aid to the rebels speech is distinctly negative in made it clear that the war was character. It is true that Hitler 5oing to be long and waged on modern lines, it was decided to Rays Germany is conscious of form these foreigners into a her task in co-operating loyally | unit of their own. in the removal of international
of the tenour and shouts of "Salut, Salut" came, from practically every European beau ideal of any public schoolOMMANDING them all is the
status
113
a
to nation
a
S. MOUTRIE & CO., LTD. fully entitled to
York Building
LAST
Chater Road
4
DAYS
25%
OFF ALL
DISCOUNT
'MANFIELD'.
AND
'LANEFORD'. SHOES
DO NOT MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY !
LANE, CRAWFORD, LTD.
MEN'S WEAR DEPT.
*****
*
*
claim credit. But it is impossible to read the speech without thinking
over the frontier in the night. that a man of the personality THE International Column had Communists who had slipped
and power of the Reich Leader might, if he so chose, do more
With their experience arid.
As the situation around Madrid grew more critical, and
problems, but it is clear that he determination they could form still envisages a Europe divided | a cadre of shock troops to meet into opposing blocs, and, in the Moors and Legionaries und particular, that he will have Italian and German tank sec- nothing to do with any settle- tions which formed the real striking force of Franco's army. ment which includes Russin within its ambit. A policy so based must obviously result in interminable hatred and friction. Only by a complete joining of certainty regarding the value of hands for the preservation of signed treaties. It is true that peace can the future be made Germany always regarded the safe and secure. Herr Hitler | Peace Treaty as being forced on says he cannot build the German her; that consideration docs nation on promises by foreign not apply to the Locarno statesmen, but surely all inter-Trenty, a freely-negotiated pact, national agreements rest on but nevertheless denounced by promises and assurances. Hitler Germany. And it is not without says there can be no point in a significance that Herr Hitler, in quarrel between Germany and his latest speech, made no men- France, and he adds that Ger- tion of a new understanding to many will respect the neutrality take its place. On the whole, of Belgium and Holland for all the speech is well described as time. But if he openly declares vague and ambiguous. Nong that he cannot accept other the less, the sincerely-expressed statesmen's promises, how can declaration in favour of peace he expect others to take his at offers a possible starting-point their face value? One of the for now and better days. The chief troubles in dealing with main essential is that something Gormany under the Hitler definite in the way of negotiation regime has been caused by un should be soon begun.
ago.
*.*
representing
SIDE GLANCES By George Clark
"Look in the paper and see what club manman is playing
bridge this evening."
A German officers the Rumanian group; the Poles have some French officers; and, most. striking of all instances of in-- ternational feeling, ono Yugo Slav section serves with the Italians.
The British section, organised as Lewis gunners, has served: until now chiefly with the Thacimann Battalion, but is now being reorganised independently under its own commander:
This is better, because the two nations of fighting which do not always blend easily the British their dogged, joking, take-things-as-they come atti- tude, and the German their furious method of frontal attack which has cost the Thacimánni Battalion as heavily in the Uni versity City as it did Hinden- burg's forces in France.
Whether the efforts of these men and of the Spanish militias will be enough to save Madrid in the face of the regular troops of Germany and Italy which Franco is calling to his ald can- not be predicted. But whatever happens, their name will go down to history as one of the finest and most courageous body. of men ever in armis
They are the most encourage. *ling sight I have ever soen, be
cause they are the first body | of, anti-Fascists whom I felt were not only more just; and, more intelligent, but most im- portant of allmore, powerful than a corresponding number of Fascists.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.