1940-01-08 — Page 24

Monday,

HONGKONG. TELEGRAPH

January 8, 1940.

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The

Hongkong Telegraph.

Monday, January 8, 1940. Wyndham St., Hongkong

Telephone: 20015

THE prefx Special to the Telegraph“ used by the fongkong Telegraph to indiente news which is strictly copyright under the provisions or the Telecommuni- estions Ordinance, 1936. Ruch new

bear the Indiration UP is recived in Ilongkong on the date of pulleation by the United Press Associations, who re- serve at rights and forbid republication, either wholly or in part without previous afrangenteni,

Tribute

THOUGH the war on land has

Storgi. Zabielars with porque to the famous picture by ww.Ryeamus RAY

"WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER?"

A suspected anti-Hitler plot by the ex-Crown Prince and other relatives of the exiled Kaiser 'is being investigated by the Nazis, say reports from Germany.

CONSCIENCE

on the CARPET

ONSCIENCE," said Hamlet, "doth make cowards of us all." But in war-time con- selence makes brave men of a

lot of young people.

reached a point of deadlock. and the war in the air still hangs for fire, at sen the struggle

Think of the nervousness, the mastery is being waged relentless-desperate unhappiness which most

ly and on an ever-increasing scale. For weeks we have all been anying: "This is a queer avar- nothing seems to happen," but that was because we were safely on dry land. Plenty has been happening at sea. Hundreds of men and women have suffered and died, and many fine ships have

Hungarian-Gipsy Band-been sunk

Look at the list, The Athenia, .Organ Reginald Foort.

the Courageous, the Royal Oak, Levy's Orch. A submarine, a destroyer, a mine- sweeper. Numerous trawlers and Max Miller.

cargo boats, carrying on with their Kentucky Minstrels. all-important task of bringing Kentucky Minstrels, supplies to Britain. A dozen or Jack Hylos's Orcht two of neutral ships. And now Mayfair Piano Accordean. Band.

a sudden spate of sinkings by the ......Henderson Sisters.

merciless Nazi mines.

Let us pay tribute to the crews and

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noutral alike, who have known full well the dungers they were facing and have still done their duty. Let us pay tribute to the passengers who have been the victims of the war at sea, and to the men who have risked their own lives in the work of rescue. Let us anlute the devotion of all these men, and their steadfast courage,

LET

ET us determine, alao, to face and overcome the new pro- blems created by the Nazi minca which prey indiscriminately on the shipping of the world. The inten-

of us feel if we are called upon to make the shortest speech at a wedding or a dinner or to say thank you publicly for a set of pre- sentation fish-knives.

What torturing procession ensues of ums and als, threat- clearings and nervous clutchings of the nearest solid support. The Englishman's home is his soap- box; outside it as a rule he is as dumb as an ox and not nearly as decorative.

---Yet-in-many-parts-of-Britain.at. present young men of 20 and 21 with no experience of public speak- ing are standing up in pubile courts. to proetnim views which in a country at war are the most un- popular views they could possibly hold-puclast ones,

professional

Except for the martyr, it is never wholly pleasant,

and certainly always dimcult, to swim against the main current of public opinion.

The War Aim

Possibly young conscientious objectors are fortified in their ap- peal for tolerance by the state- ment that this particular war ta being fought for democracy and 11berty and the freedom of indi- vidual opinion.

Come with me, then, tu one par- ticular Conscientious Objectors' Tribunal, which in the course of little more than a month has gained for Itself some notoriety, to see how far these high-minded principles are being given expres-

by Stuart Fletcher

sion by the professional examiniere af conscience.

131

These elderly examiners - county court judge, professor of philosophy;

ex-educationist, and a retired trade union leader- sit in the Council Chamber of Fül- ham Town Hall. They constitute the London Conscientious Objec- tors' Tribunal,

Stage is Set

times eloquently, more often tedi- ously written, but none the less a testament,

The judge reads it out in a fạt. dry, hurrying volce as if it is an Inventory of rather BTCceries.

unsavoury

Then

And come questions. these, as I bave pointed out in this

newspaper already, give the im- pression of being designed less to mensure the depth of an appli- cant's conscience than to muddie A mind already confused by the necrssity of making a desperate

A half-circle of oak pews faces them. Overlooking thefa frn-pub---decision. He gallery, whence from time to time come duly reproved titters, murmura of disapprobation, and whispered controversies.

Around the chamber are stained glass windows of past klags and queens of England. life-size A

oll painting of the the Fifth behind Gcorge Judge's chair is flanked by stiff and feless portralls of numerous mayors of Fulham, all of whom the artists have contrived with considerable ingenuity to make

rather look like mayors

than human beings,

The stage is sot. An usher-n one-armed man who is probably a wounded veteran of the last war- calls out a name, and a young man, his adam's appic bobbing up and down in an extremity of ner- volsness, walks hurriedly into the well of the court and faces the Tribunal.

Having verified the applicant's name, the judge reads out his statement claiming exemption. This is a testament of faith, some-

Everyone

bo

tion is clear to ring our coasta WITHOUT wanting to with an impassable barrier, and unduly gloomy, we must admit that in these days of Possible black-outs life is even

starve us out."

What is the answer? First, the one that has been given-economic reprisal. Second, the sweeping of the mines. If, as is supposed, they are mines of a new type, the thak of aweeping them may present new difficulties. Wo must overcome

The amount of barren theologi- cal disputation and smart-neck bandying of Bible texts which goes on in this court would have tried the patience even of a conference of medieval schoolmen.

"Where in the New Testa- ment," asks the judge, "does Christ specifically say that war la incompatible with His teaching?"

Who is Wrong?

"Love your neighbour as your self by all means," allows the philosopher member of the Tri- bunal, speaking in a crisp and quito delightful Scottish accent, "bat don't attempt to tell me that you can extend that love to a whole country, That is unten- able"

(Yet was it not Mr. Chamber- lain's own brother who vowed on a famous occasion: 'I love France as one loves a woman! ")

The judge dealing with another young man has an ingenious idea.

Ought

Make

a

To

Will

more precarious than usual. A Solicitor Tells You How

Therefore if it was wise for every man and woman to make a Will in peace timo, it is even more a duty now to see that your affairs are in reasonable order.

TO

Killing repugnant to God? he asks. But God so loved the world that He sent His only Son to the earth to be killed for humanity's sake. Moreover, in the last resort. by means of death He.klils us all,

On and on the arguments go: settling nothing except that a number of young men who have expressed their conscientious ob- Jection to participating in the activities of the war machine are clutched into its mechanism.

Nearly always their bowildered incoherence is no match for the dialectical skill and frivolous in- Genuity of the Tribunal,

Elbowed Out

An applicant_gives_a_political basis for his objection. But, says the Tribunal, pulities have nothing to do with conscience.

Are we then, to belleve that our rulers and representatives, elected under the demcaracy for which we kre Oghting. are professionai cynics devoid of conscience and able like lawyers to adapt their political faiths to the most remun- erative brief?

Occasionally Mr. A. B. Swoles, the trade union member, rosy- faced, white moustached. and rather

the reassuring. enters debate with more good intent than success-his mothod of patient in- quiry seems to be elbowed out by the debating society experts.

And what, in terms of figures, In does this Tribunal achieve? just over a month since its first sitting on October 3, 405 cases were heard by it.

were

Of the applicants 180 ordered to do non-combatant ser- vice; 185 ware exempted from fighting on condition that they did civilian work of national im- portance (many of them were al- doing so); seven were un- conditionally exempted; and 184 totally their applications

had

rejected.

To the applicants, at all events. that must be an unsatisfactory itate of affairs. The State itself vill suffer, too, in further waste of ime when the Appeals Tribunal ins to hear many of these cases ali ›ver again.

Rough and Ready

Meanwhile, although the prob- lem is one to try the wisdom,and patience of angels, far more satis- actory results are beling obtained nother co sitting of the South-

I attended a hereby reveke zast of England Tribunal.

Hore

At the moment solicitors offices illooed on his back, but such odd are full of people who want Wilts ideas merely cast doubt upon the drafted, but not everyone has guineas sanity of the testator.

But there is no

You can begin by saying "I, John: lo spare just now.

Smith, of great dimcully about making thoso dieulties, and we believe Practically everybody has some-simple Will and if your affairs are all former Wills made by me and the applicant's initial objection that they will be overcome.

thing to leave if it's only some not complicated you can do it per-declare this to be my inst Will." Third, and not least important, furniture or an insurance policy fectly well yourself.

Then go on to say as simply as seemed to be accepted, and the and

will want 1 mike you we must strain overy effort not

For most of us, all we want to possible what you want to do with Tribunal probed Ita depth by find- using any ing out what kind of job the man Wint sure

pro- It goes to Use merely to replace the ships wo aro

s to any who is to have our bits of your property. Avoki leave per person. If yout losing, but to build up a merchant, Will the law will distribute your properly and who is to look after legal terms you may not fully under before them would be willing to do

stand they may have come technical wartime. A Will must be in writing, but it meaning which is not what you floot which will more than suffice goods for you according to the rules our estate. You can do it ke this. of Interacy, but that may mean

Entend. for all our war-time needs, with a something very different from what may be in ink er pencil, typewritten

or printed. It may be on

If you are leaving all your goods margin to apare. That is a great you Intended,

material, but most of us would use to your wife you will say "I give all taak, but it can be done.

And that is especially true if you paper. There have been plenty my teal and personal estate to my Hongkong, with its splendid ships are a single man or women-distant freak Wills mede on such thing as wife, Jane Smith," But if you are relatives whom you may not in the egg-shells, shiri-fronts, and photo-iving any special gifts to friends or yards, can be expected to play an least care for roll up from the ends graphs and it is even said that some relations they should be set out first

PLEASE Turn To Page 3. Important part in this work.

of the earth to share in your estate. one is walking about with his Will

any

41

if a

LL

Failing second-sight on the part judge, this seems to be the rough-and-ready method.

For, since we are fighting for treedom, it is obvious that toler ance should err on the side of error rather than dragooning unwilling people into an activity which they

abhor.