1940-10-07 — Page 3

56-87

·80-40

Monday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

DONALD DUCK

| MAGAZINE

C.I.G.S.

He's the Architect of all

our War plans

BY F. C. H. SALUSBURY

D

War Correspondent,

URING the present lull

not to be confused with fullaby, as was done by the last Government and the Allied High Command- there is one military officer whose advice to the War Cabinet is of the utmost importance.

He is General Sir John Dill-36 years old, tallish, lean, moustached Ulsterman and ex-infantry omeet Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and his functions are possibly the most mysterious to the civilian pubile of all those in the literarchy of the Army.

particular diMculties—at least for the duration.

On the other hand, he must not be too much of a soldier to be in- capable of recognising helpful Imagination in a civilian brain.

In making those remarks I am thinking in no way of Bir Joho Dill but of instaricas in our history when such dimculties and clashes have occurred. We have them now.

no time for

We have no ume for the somno- lent muguess which characterised the Allied High Command during the Winter and Spring

TOO MUCH "CANT'

Hitler had given us the perfect object lesson in his strategy and thetles when he overran Poland.

The best method of meeting such an attack is with your own aircraft tanks and artillery. But we suffered From a general shortage of material.

The next best method in with a forti fed ne supported by qualek-firing artil-

We remember him as the com mander of the 1st Corps with the B.E.F.; as a general with a greatery, behind which you can proceed to

record in Palestine during the dim- cult years of 30 and 37 who has the profound respect of the fighting soldier. Now he has retreated be- hind a screen,

SPINS A WEB

One thing can be sald definitely of him in his prosent omcial position. ite does not command troops in the loosely necepted sense of the phrase; he is not a lender of armica.

Rather does he sit in the background and spin's Web of strategy.

Above all, he must be a thinker, a cunning thinker: and the lower the cunning-in this age of international Fangsters-the better.

&

There has not been a Commander- in-Chief of the British Army for a long That function is exercises col- lectively by the War Cabinet, as is also the command of the Royal Navy and of the Royal Air Purce.

The First Lord of the Admiralty, the Secretary of State for War, and the Becretary of Bate for Air are the ministers responsible for the effclency of their respective departmenta: and they, in turn, are advised by their Chiefs

of Stat.

Now the 0108-the initiala by which the army knows the holder of Sir John Dill's office-would not be in active command if the enemy invaded this country. That, presumably, is the Job of L-General Bir Alan Brooke, who commanda the Home Defences.

But the G.1.0.8, has been very much in at the birth of the strategy which governs the Home Commander's dis positions

Let me put it in the simplest, baldest way. The War Cabinet has decided to defend us from invasion. It calls for expert advice, and the 0108, speak. ing for the Army, has provided the Secretary for War with a plan.

NO SMUGNESS

remedy your shortages at express spend. The French had their uncompleted Maginot Line! but the Allied strategista proceeded neither to rush through any serious extension of

nor whole- heartedly to remedy our shortages of material

Was there a school of thought which advocated this kind of shield until we were ready to attack? There was 16 wha discouraged.

You can't build a Maginot Line in Flanders mud," said They. But you can; there is a tried American method which operates by freezing the mud

Anyhow," said They, "you can't build one on fint ground.” And, when a ino was then suggested on higher Sund in the Vimg region. It was derided as involving the surrender of Loo much territory to the enemy--an in the light of events objection which has a sardonic humour

IMPERIAL PLANS

Bo we return to the present task of ell room arreed against the future with the CLGA. who has entered the coun-

the lessons learned from a record nun perpetrated by others. ber of political and military fatuitles

He has to plan and advise not only for the war as it affects the army in Great Britain, but, imperially. for the Empire.

Cabinet, in the Services. When it has A schema may arise anywhere—in the been hammered out it has the authority of the War Cabinet, but it has been per- fected technically by the Chiefs of Staff Committee, consisting of the CLOS, and the Naval and Air Chiefs of Staf originated in a Dominion-there will If it involves a Dominion-if it has have

been discussions with the Dominion's staza, and agreement will have been reached on a local com- inander and the forces available.

• So we reach the stage when the plas is put into operation, and the general in command inkes the responsibility for Its success on his shoulders,

This plan however, has been in- Thereafter the OIGE-unless tho nuenced by two other members of the plan is revised-plays the part of an Army. Coube-the Adjutant-General investor who has ananced an enterprise, whn is responsible for finding the men, and may be called on at any moment and the Quartermaster-General who to find fresh funda supplies their arms, food and equip TRAZIL

On the nice cohesion of these three branches of the staff depends the suc- cess of a campaign, provided always that the strategy of the campaign has 'been planned with cunting Imagination. Which brings us back to the OIG.8. and his limitless responsibi}kles,

He speaks for the Army, and he must be strong criough to speak his mind. to “ahout it very loud and clear." if the

· Ard/y's "needs are being cheated by: political parsimony or expediency.

We are now in a fighting, aggressive mood, all of us, no matter what our role in the war. Wo are looking forward to our invasion of Europe, and short of that to expeditions, like Drake's, which will singe Hiller's moustache,'

Last winter I reported from France the true story of a soldier-an'old sweat -who overheard a general say to an officer in the front lipa," And then you will advance according to plan."

"Ah." said the old sweat, so there. is a ruddy plan!"

That is where Sir John Dill comes in,:

We have, however, surmounted those, and carries on.

LETTERS TO TEACHER

ANY teachers keep a

Another sad létter

THIS POEM STILL RINGS

I

is ninety years since Wordsworth died. Famous as a nature-poet, he was no less a fervent patriot. Such strains as the following might have been composed yesterday,

We are left, or shall be teft,

alone:

The last that dare to strupple

with the Joc,

Tix well from this day forward

'te shall know That in ourselves

our safely

must be sought; That by our own right hands it

must be wrought, That

we must stand unpropped, or be laid low

O Dastard, whom mich foretaste

doth not cheer}

We shall cault, if they who rule

the land

Br

who hold its many men, blessings dear,

Wise, upright, valiant; not a

servile band,

Who are to judge of danger

which they fear,

And honour which they do not

understand.

Who to the MAMMUTS of an

earthly string

Of Britain's acts would sing, He with enraptured volte tolll

Tell

Of one whose spirit no revèrse

could quell:

Of one that 'mid the failing

never fail'd.

There is a bondage worse. far

worze, to bear

Than his who breathes, by roof,

and floor, and wall,

Pent in, 1 Tyrant's solitary

Thrall,

'Tis his who walks about in the

open air, One of a

a Nation who, hence- forth, must wear

couts.

Their

fetters in their For who could be, Who, even the best, in auch

condition, free

From self-reproach,

that he must share With human nature?

be it ourE

reproach

Never

To see the sun how brightly it

will shine,

And know that noble feelings,

manly power, Instead of gathering strength,

must droop and plue;

繭

And earth with all her picasant

fruits and flowers

Fade, and participate in man's

decline,

What if our numbers

could defy

barely

were he-

The arithmetic of babes, must!

foreign hordes, Slaves, alle as ever

fooled by words, Striking through English breasts

the anarchy

Of Terror bear us to the ground,

and tle

backs

Our hands behind our with felon corde. Yields everything to discipline.

of swords?

Is man as good as man, none

low, none high?

Nor discipline nor valour can

·withaland The shock, nor quell the in-

evitable rout, When in some great extremity

breaks out

A people, on their own beloved

Land

Risen, like one man, to combat

in the sight

Of a just God for liberty and The right,

m

often with disastrous results-in the_hope of jouking both teacher and parent. One of these classics read: Please excuse Tam for be ing absent yesterday. He had a

M collection of strangely bruggle cunna, come to the schule, touch scurte over Needless

731940.

By Walt Disney

Walt Disney,

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PAGE

FUNNY SIDE UP

16-DAY

BIKE RACE

DEAN

"Happy birth-day to you-u-u-u, happy birth-day to you-u-u-u!"

Hilaire Belloc Believes

GERMANY'S

•

TIME

GROWING SHORT

Recent weeks have been marked by a fairly rapid in- crease in the intensity of enemy air work against Britain and corresponding in- tensity in our own defensive.

We should do well to examine the probable reasons, for this new phase of intensity and fts probable duration. Before considering these points, however, ·let us repeat the advantages the enemy still possesses. Iest, in examining his reasons for haste, we should ex- aggerate in our own favour the conditions of the struggle during its present phase,

The one prime advantage which the enemy holds is that of num- bers. It is a poldt we have in- slated upon over and over again, and there is the more necessity for Buch Insistence from the fact that, purtly

from lack of proportion. partly from the effect of pro- paganda, the full meaning of these numbers is not clearly present to the public.

The main fact underlying all the rest is the fact that the enciny, quite apart from his Mediterranean Gillanice, was originally much more than equal numerically to the French and English combined,

Since the French forces were eliminated, the enemy's recruiting field--that is the ultimate man- power on which he can draw—is

much more than double our own.

The Mass Attack

But having said so much, and. fully considering that handicap against us (a handleap which has adversely affected neutral opinion of our chances), we may justly turn

and trained plots. Every day we "approuch"moréTM nearly

'ta parity, and that with the added advantage of, on the whole, better machines and certainly better trained pilots.

We are still a long way off equality in numbers, but the op- proach to it is ceaseless. Unless the enemy has won his campaign before numerical superiority. in this vito um passes to our side, he has lost the war,

Need For Speed

That is one reason for the re- cent_accentuation of his pace in air work. Another is the uncertain margin of good weather remain- Ing to him." When the storms come air work will be very differ- ent, and the difference will not be In his favour.

Now, not only inust the enemy act quickly in the time at his dis- posal but he must obtain a com- plete decision within that ilme.

on

This is a consideration that must have haunted the enemy General Staff ever since the attack Poland was launched a year ago.""

Increasing success, increasing occupation of territory, even the vastly increased numerical advan- toge obtained by the collapse of French resistance, are still con- ditioned, and more and more conditioned, by the necessity for a rapid victorious conclusion:

Enemy's Advantages

To obtain such ́a-decision' his old ...original advantages are still with him: the remarkable:excellence of his staff work, the units of his in- ternal government, the perfection"

of his intelligence department. ⠀ ⠀[{"

to the other side of the question.o well to bear in mind continually.

It is evident that the enemy is accelerating his pace. He la push- Ing his preparatory attack hard.

It is much more than the "testing" which he has claimed it to, befo

This last advantage we should

When the enemy was tracking down the King of Norway last year they were informed of his every move, and he narrowly escaped with his

11 is rapidly becoming something / They have been informed of like areanss attack, sa far as the most of our moves far sore than preliminary airwork is concerned, we have been informed of theirs,

PAR KELASTEAIA and is an acceleration in quality aste) And, most, a zaman

Felassie

worded and painfully-written which I've poultised. Her Mother!

for she's cut her hound on a bottle to say, the "duch did not pre- notes in their deska, sent by "Dear Sir,"

vent the truant from enjoying him parents as "excuses' for their mother, "I canna send oor Jean to

wrote another self with his own ploy children's absence from school. the schule as I'm sorry to say she's Some of them are well worth an inveterate plunker was

ta'en a dislike to yow it preserving for the unwitting by an angry teacher that he must humour they contain.

the head of his family. "She's

teacher rend: "Daur Sig wee Mary ate something that didna agres

her faside. We kept her at hame

VA, néwrpupil arrived at a counting an excuse for absence from, to ssÈ IL KURZNÁr:poisoned: Yours

try ichool one day bearing the awa tras hame, sir was the rear Tollahring 2 strange? epistlery Dearply need to get and free ma

very obedient, Her Mother

"well" main quantity, for the enemy envisages: a steadily increasing ata tack upon, our vin

centres s well as our urban population our alt bases, ports, and munition factories,ATOKAN

warning letter reached the tencher and day up angin let Jenntask

just to warn ye no' to faither it by hersel the day because I ull on the buck as be Sometimes the erring scholars

ased, the letters: themselves ev

why dils think the hat the shandle con Keri? First, there

nothing, afgrent moment) in their plank has ever leaked out.

new #tanka" which were the ment/of victory last May

14

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