1941-04-18 — Page 20

Friday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

April 18, 1941.

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DEATH

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a.m.

RUSSELL-Margaret Jane, passed peacefully away at The Hermi- tage," Hongkong, at 3 April 18, 1941. The Funeral will take place at the Colonial Cemetery to-morrow, the cortege passing the Monument at 5 p.m.

The

Thongkong Telegraph.

Friday, April 18, 1941. Wyndham St, Hongkong Telephone: 26015

THE prefix "Sperial to the Telegraph" is used by the Hongkong Telegraph indicate news which is strictly copyright

under the provisions of the Telecommuni. cations Ordinance, 1016. Such news AS bears the indiestión "UP" h received in Hongkong on the date of publication by the United Press Associations, who re- serve all rights and forbid republications,

Aiyangument.

either wholly or in part without previous

STIFF UPPER LIP

THERE is no doubt that many English people are now remembering with pride that their gallant leader promised them blood, tears, toil and sweat along the first arduous laps to victory. The reversals in Libya and the Balkans, superficial as they may prove to be, are a timely reminder that the Nazi land forces are a most formid- able fighting machine-not at all to be compared with the Italian army,

There is little doubt but that the war is going on for a long time yet and the peoples assem- bled together under the Union Jack against Germany and Italy are prepared grimly to suffer whatever reverses the future may hold for them on land, sea and in the air. It is gratifying to reflect that whatever casual- ties we sustain, the enemy pays generally threefold and what- ever territory ho always adds to his overheads and pays no dividends. On the other hand the democracies' strength increases by leaps and bounds; time, which we should have taken by the forelock a few years ago, has not deserted us. Factually the situation calls for clear thinking and quick setion on our part to nullify

the entirely gains in North Africa and to enemy check his headlong course in the south of Yugo-Slavia towards the

Concluding: HOW WILL HITLER FALL?

THE new Europe will fail un-

THE

less it solves the riddle of

the Balkans.

It is true that in one sense the Balkans are not, and have never been, a part of Europe. They

| suffered in every great onslaught

of the Asiatic tribesmen.

crn,

RIDDLE

of the BALKANS

By GEORGE SLOCOMBE

(The Famous Foreign Correspondent)

In this Greco-Turk reconciliation may be found the germ of a settle- ment of all the Balkan froubles, per- haps of all the troubles of Europe,

Yet one of these States/was, in theory, an autocratio: State; and the other a State ductuating painfully between periods of democracy, and periods of semi-autocracy.

Evidently, democracy alone is not to be the fundamental basis of any immediate charter for the Balkans. Not, that is, democracy as the French knew it, and`as we used to under- stood it in Great Britain.

The truth would seem to be that

They were on that unhappy borderland where two civilisa- tions met, and although what we now call Western civilisation had its origins in the most southerly tip of the Balkans peninsula, it was not the West-

den aggression of Mussolini if, the against Greece, as Germany and Italy democracy can only flourish at a cer- but the Eastern, spirit Greeks had not been led by which eventually triumphed. It authoritarian Metaxes? used to be said that Europe ends I discussed this question with the had accepted bribes from Fascism as age its growth-as witness Germany, at Vienna. But that was before Greek Minister in London, M. Simo- the French Press did from Nazism the Germany of the Kaiser, of the poulos. The son of a famous Greek earlier, públic opinion might have Weimar Republic, or of the Third the Nazis came.

scholar and the nephew of a famous been undermined and confused, and Reich. Since the middle of the nine- Minister of Finance, M. Simopoulos Mussolin! might have enjoyed teenth century the Balkans have been the jousting-ground of Big Power politics.

tain stage of political development the had against France.

and of political education. Super- If the Greek Press in November Acial culture alone does not encour

A

In the Bolkons, a peninsula of

small agricultural States but recently

is a veteran in diplomacy. He has walkover in Greece. served his country in many capitals He counted on this. But he did emerged from a long period of en- and under many different Govern not count on. General Metaxas. In glavement to the Ottoman Empire, ments.

the eyes of the democrats in pre- and later subject to the domination Russia and Austria, Germany

He was in London when the two Hillerlan Germany, and in pre-Petain of one Great Power after another, and Italy used Serb and Bulgar,

most important events occurred in France, Metaxas would be considered pence, prosperity and orderly govern-. Greck and Turk as pawns in a recent history, before the war with a rank reactionary.

ment may have to be ensured for some years to come by a measure of vast, cynical and occasionally. Italy the restoration of King George

to the Greek Mirone in 1935 and the But this reactionary, for all his op- autocratic power, murderous game of grab.

advent of General Metaxas to power In 1936.

To Germany the Balkan penin- sula was the jumping-off place for her long-contemplated march into Asia. Russla kept a covet ous eye on Constantinople and the Straits.

Birth-Pangs

+

Hour And The Man

parent suppression of democracy in Greece, saved the liberty and 'inde- pendence of his country. He suc ceeded in uniting and stabilising his country, in war as in peace.

Co-operation

The protection of the big Powers -Russia or Great Britain-is no

circumstances in which Metaxas was of the Greek Anthology: "He died,

M. Simapoulos explained to me the And he deseryes an epitaph worthy solution of the problem. called to office. The country was but his country lived." divided into two almost equally powerful factions.

When the Balkan peoples have learned to depend solely upon them Even the pre-war record of Metaxas compares favourably with selves, they will have learned the The elections held after King that of some of the so-called demo-

lesson of collective resistance against George's restoration, under conditions cratic statesmen in the Balkans and aggression from without. During the of freedom and order rarely wit in other countries. nessed in Greece, divided the seats in

Parliament between the two prin- the

cipal Parties, but gave the final power to the Communist minority, which with its 14 seats could put either Party in office:

France and England tried to bribe the Sultan into submission with loans, while the more astute Germans played bolder card of revolution, and put the Young Turks in power. Greece and Bulgaria were the objects of Victorian England's sentimental admiration, but English Liberals did not protest when a descendant of the Bour- bons was crowned in Sofia as Tsar of the Bulgarians.

Metaxas's Work

years of Illusory European reconcilia- tion and appeasement thord were re- peated attempts to organise the Bul kan States into an entente for mutuat

He dealt drastically and success- protection. fully with urgent social problems. He introduced minimum wages, com-

But always that entento Was

The King, therefore, decided the pulsory arbitration of labour dis- weakened by the abstention of issue by appealing to a Government putes, collective labour contracts. country like Bulgaria, directly' in- of non-party men, headed by n uni- accident and health insurance, old age fluenced or dominated by an aggres- versity professor, the late M. De pensions.

sive Power, or the doubtful participa- mertzis,

tion of on unstable Stato like He remitted 30 per cent. of the Rumania, fearful of the designs of the When this man died, his Vice- debts of the peasants, spent Govern- neighbours whose territory It had Premier, General Metaxas, succeeded ment money on child welfare, started acquired. Since the end of the war of 1014- him. Metaxas then governed Greece a national campaign against malaria 1018 the Balkans have become a with a mild, even-handed, but never and tuberculosis, built hospitals, and blue-print of democracy in its birth- theless autocratie hand.

reclaimed pestilential marshlands. pangs. They have witnessed coming and the going of all varieties Let us not blink the fact. The And all this in a small country of parliamentary government,

valiant Greece of to-day, the Greece which since the last war had had to disquieting condition of things. It This war may clarify that always which rose 25 one man against find land and employment and homes only it removes the Balkans from two Balkan countries with the least Italians across the frontier, which quarter of its population, the refugee if only it persuades the Balkan States In Jugoslavia and Rumania, the Mussolini, which threw back the for a million and a half people, the Great Powers' sphere of influence. homogeneous population, Parliament pursued an immensely superior army inheritance of the

disastrous

war to persist in the way of federation.

the

has never been more than a fiction, into Albania, which is still infileting with the Turks.

Federation?

For a hundred years the Balkans

It has served as the stage for mutual defeat after defeat on Mussolini's recriminations and revolver-duels mechanised and highly-disciplined Disastrous, but in the long run have contained the germs of Great between rival parties and national army, is not, according to our British beneficial. Because out of this war Power disputes,

came the reconciliation between two groups, but it has never ruled, Ideas, a democracy.

-hereditary-enemies, the end-of-an-Wer-in-Europe-was-narrowly Not even in the time of the Liberal But they were united against out- age-long feud. Bratianus could it be said that the side enemies.

averted in 1912 as a result of the Balkan wars. In 1914, the long- Rumanians enjoyed parliamentary

There is nothing in the history of threatened conflagration was touched Europe so remarkable as the settle off by a Balkan inckient. ment of the dispute between the

representation. And since then. . - ..

Miscalculations

Greeks and the Turks. It was enter- It may be that in this long-disputed

Bulgaria, under the stout and bullsky, had a short experience of weapons swarthy peasant Premier, Stam- Italy bad for years exerted the ed into voluntarily; each side made region of Europe the basis will be democracy. But Stambulisky

of economic penetration, concessions: each side has honestly found of a larger European federa- was political corruption and Press bribery kept the contract made. murdered by his political opponents.

power, and after him a long series

The dictator, Tankoff, came into

of more or less arbitrary statesmen.) Only the mild, moderating lnfluence of King Boris saved the country

from internal revolution. gains

Turkey's Path

CORFU

at the Duce's hands than

No place has suffered more under his successor Incunu, Turkey Corfu. Day after day, raids on

Under the lato Kemal Ataturk, and has enjoyed a kind of benevolent and patriarchal autocracy, grafted on to this beautiful town and island a society essentially democratic in have been proudly recorded in Mussolini's communiques,

character.

Kemal was unlike other autocrats in this, that he sincerely encouraged There is no need to look far for the growth of democracy and parlia- the reason. Corfu is close to mentory govemment in Turkey, even Italy-and it is undefended. opposition, when the rule of a single fore been able to crucify its in- to the point of creating an official The Italian airmen have there- a great gamble with his is political thought and criticism.

national party seemed to be stifling habitants in perfect safety. With their casualties mounting Like other autocrats, however to many hundreds, the citizens Kemal refused to remove himself

ALBANIA

tion, a more permanent Europe peace.

WAITS FOR SETTLING DAY.

GREECE

CORFU

· Ringlades

Porga

The Italian departed. The Prefect set to work to inform the foreign Consuls. A few minutes after the Britlah Consul

had been notified, the Italian, warships began to bombard the town,

and

The Italian gunnery, was shocking In its inaccuracy. · Of thirteen shells almed at the fort, twelve fell short

hit

# gendarmerie school, Several ploughed their way through a crowd of orphan boya bathing in the sea. Others fell among the re-

whereabouts the Italian commander

heart of Greece. General Wavell took of the Nile. He had to. Using forces like a hammer he struck blow uw after blow swiftly along the whole Libyan coast and then, having tem- porarily quashed all opposition he from the seat of power and see what of Corfu have shown that they turned it on

on Abyssinia and crushed would happen under conditions of too can "take It" and wait but rejected others. They de-fugees, abuut whose presence and that clayey-footed Empire. In

a few complete freedom. If he had done with patience and hope for the clared, with good reason, that had been warned. Of twenty people history-making weeks. At the same ume Wavell denuded his strength in be resisting the Axis 10-day,

ao, we may wonder if Turkey would day of reckoning which now proportion to the enemy's weakening resistance to send reinforcements to

For what is freedom? "Liberty is Greece

while he had also to

keep in

a noble idea," said a Greek to me mind

the threat that might yet recently, "but it is not easy to de- emerge from

the fine it. And it is still less easy to Duce. For it was to them; on Tripoli where humillated enemy was being given say where one man's liberty ceases a beautiful day in August 17 MARLY in the afternoon of Emperor had won his first victory, backbone by German armoured

ཀ

and another's begins." division and infantry shipped and

years ago, that Mussolini first E town across from Italy with con- is when it has lost it. But which heart.

A nation only knows what liborty showed the blackness of his siderable casualties on route.

seems not so far away.

their responsibility for the mur- found dead when the shelling sub-

sided,

10 wero children. The ders was not proved.

wounded could be counted in dozena. The people of Corfu have a

Corfu, which had gona to, Its ›ølesta double account to settle with the

under a peaceful Mediterranean sky, *

nwoke to the sounds and sights of batücfeld. The now. Roman

the

· saw

was ponce,

August 31 an. Italian fleet After the bombardment, the Itn- came sailing into Corfu har- lian commander made light of the Wavell's gamble has been Justified. is more imperiant, trxlividual liberty

bour. The commander was crime. "You know this is not war, Abyssinia has fallen in time for us

or national liberty? And could

"It all began with some mur- taken ashore and unceremoni-he said to an American, Colonel Greece have saved its national liberty ders on the Santi Quaranta ously called upon the Prefect to lon." If what I

Lawe. This is to release for service on the Libyan and its independence against the sud-road. An Italian General named surrender the island. The Pre- said the Colonel. "I don't know a peaceful occupa- front those victorious troops who raced through Abyssinia. There is no doubt that they will eliminate the

Tellini and.some Italian officers fect sald he must get in touch what you call war." Later he de- will not risk moving a strong army, whether the British can bring in limitation work when they were that in any case it was unnece officer with a handful of men could German spear-head, The Italians be brought to break this spring or were engaged on frontier de- with Athens. He pointed out clared that the bombardment has been entirely unnecessaty, Os "ond out of Tripoli in a

n "do

or dle"

affort reinforcements that will release these attacked by assassins to crush the British and hold the pent-up forces to join with resurgent lilled. The Duce, spolling to in no position to realst. Of its without firing a single gun."

and sary to use force as Corfu was have accomplished the occupation Germon gains unless they are certain elementa in

Bulgaria

assert the new authority of two forts, the older had been The fetanders, nursing the wounds

of success: and they are not certain. and Rumania in

In Greece the enemy have com-

It would be foolish to attempt to Fascism, demanded satisfaction dismantled in 1864 and now of 1940, have not forgotten the ressed our lines back upon a power prophesy what will happen; it is from the Greek Government. A housed refugees and an orphan- wounds. of 1023. Bravely, grimly, ful spring whose embarbos face however, safe to say that a German harsh ultimatum was delivered age. There was no gun in the they are waiting for, settling day.. covers the country from the Ionian success in this Balkan struggle will in Athens. The Greeks ac town capable of firing a lethal AS to the Aerean Sea.. The question not help her one wit to a victory in cepted some of its conditions, shot. remains whether enemy pressure can' World War No. 125 -

Paul Winterton.

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