1939-01-25 — Page 6

THE HONGKong TelegraPH, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 1939.

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The

Hongkong Telegraph.

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

Dictator's Privilege

HOW TIMES change.

EPITAPH by a BARD

Is there a whim-inspired fool,

Owre fast for thought, owre lot for rule, Owre blate to seck, owre proud to snoot?

Let him draw near;

And oure the grassy heap sing dool,

And drop a tear.

•

Is there a bard of rustic song, Who, noteless, steals the crowds among, That weekly this area throng?

O, pass not by!

But, with a frater-ferling `strong,

Here, heave a sigh,

C

Is there a man, iphose judgment clear Can others teach the course to steer, Yet roma, himself, Ufe's mad carcer

Wild as the wave?

Here pause-and, thro' the starting tear,

Survey this grave.

The poor inhabliant below,

Was quick to learn, and wise to know, And keenly felt the friendly glow,

And softer fame,

But thoughtless" follies laid him law,

And stain's his name!

*

Reader, attend-whether thy soul Soars fancy's flights beyond the pole, Or darkling grubs this earthly hole,

In low pursuit;

Knowm, prudent, cautious self-control

Is wisdom's root.

THEN 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.

of the

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

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

"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

seen

Burns was sometimes 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 sin.

"Indeed, Jean," said her hus- band laughingly, "you'll no think mę so good a man as 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

of the

on, and before I returned I saw "Kimmers, ye are a' for let-sharp rebuke to some awkward her helping herself to an arm- Five years ago, Italy was) Episcopalians were pre- ting folks hae but ae rond to learner, "ye're no' for young fut of my fitches for her cow."

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- ne gnit til't. There's against Japanese eneroach-bers of the Auld and New has but

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

the Kilmarnock edition of friend in a street in Signor Mussolini wrote an mable material at hand the othy in Highlands and Low. place between Burns and an old Cameronian clergyman who lent

lands, and it's no canny to say country grew hotter and there's but no gait to the man- Leith. The two were enjoying Burns's poern to a friend. With article for the Hearst Press in debate

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

were about to resort to fists

The argument was irresistible, a dandified acquaintance hap- injunction:-"Keep it out of the tion of Western Powers to meet when Burns intervened. The theologians were silenced, pened to stroll by. "I am sur way of your children, John, lest prised," he afterwards remon- ye catch them as I caught mine, the "Yellow Peril" of Japanese

"Gentlemen," he said, it has and, for the rer ainder Imperialism.

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

furious while the company sur. any notice of such

dressed fellow." Italy's controlled Press, which the doctrines of peace made' a

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 to?" Burns retorted sharply, about the East and so filled with among 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 chudle after

baptism. They were dif- poet. 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 Jus he was more sense and worth in him claim to be the corner-stone of tough in disputation, as you are, amongst. "Oh, mán,"

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

word spoke up.

when he overheard him giving a friends." Lesson They Teach THE

HE LESSON that totalitarian

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.i A similar condition prevails in Italy. If either country en- 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 he LTD. said, inaugurating the scheme

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-To-day's Thought-

SHALL be left forgotten in

the dust.

When Falc, relenting, lels

the flowers revive; Shall Nature's volce, 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 Mukacovo, second town of Ruthenia, lying at the valley mouth where the plain of Hungary meets the outermost spurs of the Carpa- thians.

Through his window I could see some of Mukacevo's 20,000-odd people to me very odd. There were Bercely orthodox Jews with fur trimmed caps and side curls, walking to or from one or other of Mukacevo's twenty synagogues. There were long-hatred Ruthenes from the hills, walking in cross- gartered rags and bumped sheep- skins.

Ox-

plained, called the Afghanistan of Europe before the War because on 1ts Carpathian ranges the Austro- Hungarian Empire and Tsarist Bussia rubbed uneasily together. Spies and agitators found ways across ita high passes. Hunted mort found refuge in its unknowa forests.

of voluntary national service, that it was a scheme to make

And there were the less distin- Britain ready for war. "We

guishable mixture of Czechs, will never begin a war," he said,

Slovaks, Hungarians, Poles. "but we might be forced to par-

This mountain province of Ruthenia was, the doctor war begun by ticipate in a others, or we might be attacked ourselves if the Government of some other country were to 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- sor will try an adventure in which the chances of success would be so unpromising. If wo wish to protect our civilian population in war-time, we must prepare the necessary organisa- tion in peace-time."

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 Öghting again in Ruthenia, I remember the doctor's words. Hungarian terror- ists are trying to make surɑ by force that Hungary regains An

by A.

MAGYARS

"BYTO

SLOVAKIA Bratislava

HUN

B. AUSTIN-

RUTHENIANS

POLAND

SLOVAKIA

Budapest

GARY

RUMANIA

The tall of Czechoslovakia, where the nob trouble is centred,

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

H

'UNGARY would like to swallow Ruthenia again. She would like to have a common frontier with Poland along the Carpathien ridges,” Herr Mittor is not so sure. Now that Germany dominates Czechoslu- vakia he feels that it would be

bo as well to have an eastern route open through Ruthenia, Czechoslo. vakia's castorn-most province.

Why? Because, as he sald in "Mein Kampf," he in convinced that Germany's expansion must bo eastward, at the expense of the fat grainlands of the Russian Ukraino. There is only a le wedge of Ramanin between Ruthenia and the Ukraine. Ruthenes themselves are #t Ukrainian or Little Russian people, Ruthonia's mountains might once again become an uncomfort-

The

able jostling ground, this time of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. The people and valleys and forests and high pustures DI 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 11ighlander. 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. Is hills are said to be the cradio, the first settling place, of the Russian race

Illa In Europe. language is thought to be the oldest form of Russian.

The Rutheng remains a bords- man, or a fore

forester. On Sundays and feast days he goes to hle Creek Catholic church. Its roof like a SQUAL

pagoda

with covered weathered wooden slates.

Once at Jasine. near the Pollsh frontier, I stood in a Ruthenian church on a saint's day. In the centre of the church was a wooden waching-tub Full of water. At the

I

end of the service the bearded priest blessed it. As he lowered his hand medicine bottles and mugs Wero brought from sheepskin jackets. Men and women dipped. them Into the tub. Bome drank thero and then. Some tarried a botileful away against future 11ls.

A

FTER church, in the evening, the Ruthene

will dance to fiddles. It is a good dance, for anyone can do

it, and it can be adapted to youth or age. Two can dance it together, or four, or six, or a great circle of men and women. If you dance It two by two, your partner puts her hands

on your shoulders, facing

you, and you hold her waist. Ac- cording to the music, you circle in Blow shuffle, or a fast whirl, and that is 11.

1

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

"

Bince then, under Czechoslovakla administration, the number of schools, has doubled. Over 600 of them give instruction in Ruthe- nlan. Uzhorod, formerly a smail, alummy, muddy town, has paved streets and sanitation. On the high pastures there are Blato dairies and cheese factories. Down the rivers log rafts float from the Btato forestry camps.

I

N the forest ridges, up which the slimy log -tracko 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 bed.

Ruthenia la stiil the most un- touched corner of Europe, the most primitive, if you like. There are still mean dwelltags, and poverty und dirt. But a clvilling job has The Ruthanes been well begun.

Enid that they would like it to no od

have