1939-01-25 — Page 18

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAFII, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1939.

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Hongkong Telegraph.

Wyndham St., Hongkong 'Phone 26615 January 25, 1939

Dictator's Privilege HOW

HOW TIMES change.

Five years ago, Italy was

EPITAPH by a BARD

Is there a whim-inspired fool,

Owre fast for thought, owre hot for rule, Owore blate to seel, owre proud to snool?

Let him draw scar,

Al qure this graaay licop sing dool,

And drop a fear,

4

Is there a bard of rustle sony,

Who, noteless, steals the crowds among, That weekly this area throng?

O, pass not but

But, with a frater-feyling strong,

Here, heave a sigh,

*

Is there a man, whose judgment clear Can others teach the course to steer, Yet runs, himself, life's mad career

Wild as the wave?

Here pause-and, thro' the starting tear,

Survey this grave.

The poor inhabitant below,

Was quick to learn, and wise to know,

And Reenly felt the friendly glow,

And softer flame,

But thoughtless fallen laid him low,

And stain's his name!

幽

*

*

Reader, attend-whether thy soul

Soura funcy's flights beyond the pole,

Or darkling rubs this earthly hole,

In low pursuit;

Known, prudent, cautious self-control

is wisdon's root.

W

WWTH EN ROBERT BURNS was a very young man, he strolled into an inn one day, and found that a hot dispute was in progress about the merits of the different creeds.

lands, and it's no

On another occasion when Burns was at a dinner party_in Edinburgh, the Honourable: Henry Braking and a certain Lord Swinton were of the com- pany. As usual, Mr. Erskino kept the company in an uproar with his shafts of wit, but theso were lost on Lord Swinton, who was so dent that he could not hear a word that was passing. But when he noticed the others convulsed with laughter, he would ask anxiously, "Is that my friend Harry?" and, being as- sured that it was, would laugh heartily with the rest.

A lady present remarked to Burns that a man who acting 80 ab. surdly had no business to sit as. judge on his fellowmen.

Was

"But madam," Burns protest- ed, "you wrong the honest man. He acts exactly as a good judge ought. He does not decide be- fore he has heard the evidence." Sabbath Latitude

Burns was sometimes seen with a secular book in his hands on the Sabbath day, a fact which caused some disquiet to his faith- ful Jean, who attempted to show him the enormity of this ain.

"Indeed, Jean," said her hus- band laughingly, "you'll no think me so good a man na Nance Kelly is a woman?"

"Indeed no!" she returned frankly.

"Then I'll tell you what hap- pened this morn-

ing. When I took

a walk by the banks of the Nith, I heard Nancy Kelly praying long be fore I came till her. I walked

With

on, and before I returned I saw "'Kimmers, ye are a' for let- sharp rebuke to some awkward her helping herself to an arm-

to learner, "ye're not for young ful of my litches for her cow." Episcopalians were pre- ting folks hae but ae road

In striking contrast to the to the forefront in the agitation sent, not to speak of mem- Heaven. It's a puir place that folk."

Another characteristic tale poet's tolerant view of the Sab- against Japanese encroach-bers of the Auld and New has but ae galt til't. There's

ilka concerns a meeting which took bath is the story of the ments on the mainland in Asia. Lichts. With such inflam- mair than four gates to

the Kilmarnock edition of an mable material at hand the bothy in Highlands and Low- place between Burns and an old Cameranian clergyman who lent

street in Signor Mussolini wrote

canny to say country friend in t hotter and there's but he gait to the man- Leith. The two were enjoying Burns's poem to a friend. article for the Hearst Press in debate grew

a long drawn out "crack" when the volume, he gave this solemn America, urging the organisa-hotter, and the disputants sions of the blessed.""

The argument was irresistible. a dandified acquaintance hup injunction:-"Keep it out of the tion of Western Powers to meet were about to resort to fists

when Burns intervened. The theologians

were silenced, pened to stroll by. "I am sur- Way of your children, John, lest the "Yellow Peril" of Japanese!

"Gentlemen," he said, it has and, for the remainder of the prised," he afterwards remon- ye catch them as I caught mine,

a shabbily Imperialism

now been twice my hap to see evening the fun waxed loud and strated, "that you should take reading it on the Sabbath day."

dressed fellow." Italy's controlled Press, which the doctrines of peace made a furious while the company sur any notice of such

cause of contention. I must tell rendered to the charm of Burns.

"Do you suppose it was the to-day is so cloquently silent you how the matter was settled The Man Within

man's clothes I was speaking 167" Burns retorted sharply. about the East and so filled with jamong half-a-dozen of honest

The story is typical of the "his hat, his coat, his boots? vituperations against France, women over a cup of candle after

baptism. They were as dif- poct. He was always kindly and No! It was the man within, and, unanimously challenged Japan's

ferent in opinion, and each as tolerant to the people he worked let me tell you that man

sense and worth in him claim to be the corner-stone of tough in disputation, as you are, amongst. "Oh, man," he was more

till a wife that had said not a accustomed to say to Gilbert than nine out of ton of my city peace in East Asia.

word spoke up.

when he overheard him giving a friends.'

Lesson They Teach THE LESSON that totalitarian

en-

States can teach democra- cies is that of national service. They provide the illustration of an intensified organised patriot-} ism, whether it is deep-seated or not. Germany, for instance,! is mustered to the last man and woman for defence-or offence. A similar condition prevails in Italy. If either country gages in war, all within its bounds will be trained in what to do, all will know what sacri- fices to make, the man power and the woman power will be thrown into the scale with pre- knowledge of what is expected. No democratic country is or- ganised to this extent, and yet | If it is to meet a challenge from dictatorship, it is essential that there should be a broadened con- ception of what national service implies.

Mr.

Neville Chamberlain hinted at this yesterday when heĮ

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-To-day's Thought- SHALL I be left forgotten in

the dust.

When Fate, relenting, lets

the flowers revive:

Shall Nuture's voice, to man

alone unjust,

Bld him, though doomed to

perish, hope to live?

-BURNS.

Afghanistan of

Europe

"B

EFORE the World War," said the Muka- cevo doctor, "this land was known as the Afghanistan of Europe."

He sat in his shining modern consulting room in Makacevo, second town of Ruthenia, lying at the valley mouth where the plain of Hungary meets the outermost spurs of the Carpa- thiana.

Through his window I could see some of Mukaceyo's 20,000-odd people-to me very odd.

There were flercely orthodox Jews with fur trimmed caps and side curls, walking to or from one or other of Mukacevo's twenty synagogues. There were lang-haired Ruthenes from the hills, walking in cross- gartered rags and bumped sheep- oking.

of voluntary national service, t at it was a scheme to make Britain ready for war. "We will never begin a war," he said, "but we might be forced to par-

Ruthenia was, war begun by ticipate in a others, or we might be attacked ourselves if the Government of to Home other country were think that we could not defend ourselves effectively. The better prepared we are to defend our- selves and to resist attack, the less likely is it that any aggres- Bor will try an adventure in which the chances of success would be so unpromising. If we wish to protect our civilian population in war-time, we must prepare the necessary organisa- tion in peace-time."

And there were the less distin- guishable mixture of Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Poles.

This mountain provinco of the doctor CX- plained, called the Afghanlatan of Europe before the War because on its Carpathian ranges the Austro- Hungarian Empire and Tsarlat Russia rubbed uneasily together. Epics and agitators found ways Hunted across its high passes. men found refuge in its unknown forests.

W

HEN the War came the two Empires faced each other in trenches blasted out of its topmost ridges. You can see them there to-day.

Now, when they are fighting again in Ruthenia, I remember the doctor's words, · Hungarian terror- ists are trying to make suro by forca that Hungary regains ne

by A. B. AUSTIN

MAGYARS

"Brno

SLOVAKIA Bratislava

E.SLOVAKIA

Budapest HUNGARY

RUTHENIANIS

AND

RUMANIA

The tail of Czechoslovakia, where the new trouble is centred,

much of her old territory as pos- sible. Demands and offers are shuttlecocking back and forth be- tween the Hungarian and Ozecho- slovak Governments.

UNGARY would like to swallow Rathenis again. She would like to have a comman frontier with Poland along the Carpathian ridges. Herr Hitler is not so sure. Now that Germany dominates Czechoslo- vakla bo feels that it would be as well to have an eastern route open through Ruthenia, Czechoslo- yakin's eastern-most province.

Why? Because, as he said in "Mein Kampf." he is convinced that Germany's expansion muist bo castward, at the expense of the int grainiands of the Russian Ukraine. There is only little wedge

Rumania of

between Tho Ruthenia and the Ukraine. Ruthenes themselves aro

# Ukrainian or Little Russian people. Ruthenia's mountains might once again become an uncomfort-

able Josting ground, this time of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. The peoplo and valleys and forests and high pastures of Ruthenia probably form the least known part of Europe. Most of us have a clearer notion of the habits of the Australian bushman than of the Ruthenian Ilghiander. Some half million of his race live in Ruthenia, which is little bigger than Wales. Another 3,000,000 live across the mountains, in Poland. Ila hills are said to be the cradle, the first settling place, of the Russlan

Europe. Hie raco in language is thought to be the oldest form of Eussian.

and

The Ruthene remains a herds- On Sundays man, or a forester.

feast days he goes to his Greek Catholic church. its roof like a squat

pagoda covered with weathered wooden slates.

Onco. at Jasino, near the Polish frontier, I stood in a Ruthenian church.on à saint's day. In the centre of thu ohurch was a wooden washing-tub full of water. At the

K

end of the service the bearded priest blessed it. As he lowered his hand medicine bottles and muge were

brought from sheepskin jacketa. Men and women dipped them into the tub. Bogle drank there and then, Some carried a bottletul away against future ills.

FTER church, in the evening, tho Ruthene dance to addies, It

is a good dance, for anyone can do It, and it can be adapted to youth or age. Two din dance It together. or four, or six, or a great circle of

men and women. If you dance it two by two, your partner puta her hands on your shoulders, facing you, and you hold her waist. Ac- cording to the music, you circle in a slow suite, or a fast whirl, and that 13 Ali.

These are the people who do- clared a fortnight ago, through their Parliamentary representa- tives, that they wished to remain an autonomous part of Czechosło- vakia. Up to 1010 they were ruled by Hungary. Most Ruthenes were Iterate. Teaching was given as much as possible in the Magyar language.

Since then, under Czechoslovakia administration, the number of schools, las doubled. Over 500 of them give instruction in Ruthe- nian. Uzhorod, formerly a small, alummy, muddy town, has paved streets and sanitation. On the high pastures there are State dairies and cheese factories. Down the rivers log rafts Boat from the State forestry camps.

I

N the forest ridges, up

slimy which the

log tracks climb to the old mountain trenches, you can stay in stoutly built, clean log chalets, If you carry your own food and don't mind a hard bod,

Ruthonia is atlil the most un- touched corner of Europe, the most primitive, if you like. There are still mean dwellings, and poverty and dirt. But a civilising job has

The Ruthenca been well begun. have said that they would like it to

o 'an.