1948-10-23 — Page 9

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SOCIALIST BRITAIN TRADE

BALANCE

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1948:

TALES OF ADVENTURE IN THE WEST

AND, YOU KNOW, WE ALWAYS. GET OUR MAN

World Copyright,

My Arrangement with Krening Standard,

Forgotten City Gets The Cocky' Look

T

By WALTER LUCAS

TEL-AVIV,

THE plag of a bullet is never far from the beehive life in Tel-Aviv. But any morning or any eveninst. if you stroll, down "Cream Puff Alley," along Hayarkon Street and on to the sen-front promenade, You might imagine yourself on Brighton front on a sunny August Bank holiday.

For a quarter of a mile, entes, like the inhabitants of Tel-Aviv, lead a check by jowl existence, crowded together that it is well nigh impossible to tell where one ends and the next begins.

The first and lasting Impression of this city today is of crowds clamped together in a space that is far too small for them.

In many ways,on the surface Tel-Aviv looks much as it did four years ago.

There are military and civil police dressed as they used to be, soldiers in British webbing equipment; there and even a smattering of are men in Digger hats,

huxuriant hundic-bar moustaches,

There is still a mess of barbed wire and sandbugs, car parks and Junk heaps.

"THE UNNECESSARY

WAR'

THURCHILL'S story of the pre-war years and the nine months of "Twilight War" will fascinate readers first of all for its revelations of Churchill as Churchill sees him. There he is at his Kent home, Chart- well, a few days before war, without oftleial protection and conselous that 20,000 organised German Nazis are around in Britain.

He tells his former official Melec, tive, now retired, to come along and bring his pistol. He geis out his own weapons, which were good. "While

over.

...

Churchill book throws a challenge: It could have been

stopped-by force

Mr Churchill estranged his assorlates.

sure

no need

2 WIN this trial. ali for

fall, Therefore, should bot would I The House

was although impatient for the morning, "It 101 listen to him.

t slept soundly and had the alat universal view that my political life was at last ended. How for cheering dreams. Facts are bet-

this very House of ter, than dreams." strange that Commons should have been the in- strument which hearkened to my guklance and upheld me through the tong, adverse years of war ull vie- tory over all our foes was gained,"

His moral: "What a proof that one slept the ather watches. Thus the only wise and safe course is to

have had 20 walk- nobody would

act from day to day in accordance one's WIL

conscience On the first air-raid warning with what when Chamberlain had just declar- seems to decree." ed war on that September morn of 1939 he was still a private M. P.

A GESTURE

OF MAGNANIMITY

AND THEN THE 1945 DISMISSAL

calm. Its con- passage of OR Its quiet, its

fidence, this

splendour which literature and his- tory will scarcely equal anywhere.

or

LTE prints a letter from the new says, "all our enemies having sur-

King after the Coronation: rendered unconditionally

"I know been and

and affairs.”

WINSTON CHURCHILL

The Churchill

failed argument with the Baldwin and Chamberlain Government,

with it. 100.

+

of

is

All you miss are wealthy Arabs floating around in expensive cars: and you regret that prices are often four

with tines what they were, beer at 4s. a bottle,

Reality With A Bump

BUT you come up against, reality

in all sorts of places with a Lump. I met a young girl with a new perm sitting on a verandah of iced the Armon Hotel, sucking

She Grunge Juice through a straw,

wearing an Arab kaffin made blouse, and brightly coloured striped skirt,

Wha Into

Some

days ago she was toting a Sten gun in Jerusalem in the morn- Ings, while she did n ty plog job for a doctor in the afternoons, The blouse, she told me, was made from tho kama of an Arab she had shot In the early days of the fighting in Jerusalem.

Every unmarried girl In Israel between the ages of 18, and 28 is lable for part or whole-time ser- vice in the army. Every able-bodied mon is conscripted up to the age of 45.

In a cafe I met a young boy who did not look more than 16, though he assured me he was 20. He is an artilleryman and an expert dynamiter and was down from the front on leave.

As likely as not the man crowded next to you in a bus, or crushed against you in a bar, was once a terrorist. There still survives the host of the "over the shoulder look."

and large, the

ot terrorists have enrolled themselves in Irgan

tuganah, the Israell regular army.

Outside. Tel-Aviv, behind Barbed wire, with hundreds of Israeli army men guarding them, are the hundred

or so Stern, Gang suspects rounded up after Count Bernadotte's murder.

Crazy Pattern

LTHOUGH

the

crazy pattern

They are words which will in- spire ordinary men faced with their diffeult but humble tasks, spoken nt this fearful moment of perli by one

the chief Who was to wiekd powers of the State for five and a

There was another section quarter years of war.

held that the war He and his wife repaired to the

"At the end of which time," he opinion which

was unnecessary although for very public shelter, "armed with a bottle

from Churchill's. of brandy and other appropriate

being different reasons

the isolationists, who medical comforts," and noted how

how devoted you have about to do so. I was immediately These were everyone was cheerful and Jocular.

still are, to my dear dismissed by the British electorate for a time influenced the Chamber-. **0s 19 the English manner when

brother, and I feel touched beyond from all further conduct of their lain Covernment but finally fafied about to encounter the unknown."

last words by your sympathy Ills recipe for getting the

tific-uft And that's pretty magnumimous,

WHAT WOULD scrap out of the human structure- understanding in the very

What of the controversial part of

GERMANY HAVE DONE? to send himself like a child to bed problems that have arisen since Ite too!

hen

Us. I feel must encouraged for an hour each afternoon,

THOSE two opinions battled you enn work until 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. receive your good wishes, as one of the book? Churchill says he does not expect everyone to agree with and be up again at eight if, like him, our great statesmen, and from one

whe has served

to it, the recapitulation from his point vatn for the soul of Chamber- his country you have the

of falling imme-

Yours very sincerely, of view of the melancholy proces lain. If Churchill says that force dlately into deep sleep. He records faithfully.

sion of

have prevented war it 13 of Hitler's advances: militarisa would only one sleepless night in his life, George R. 1."

"Thus Churchill comments:

gestion of the Rhineland, conscription, open to the isolationists to contend when Eden

the resigned Foreign

towards one atr parity, rape of Austria, the that Germany, if left alone, would etched by the mandate and the past few years ture of magnanimity Secretaryship in 1938.

time had Munich agreement, the invasion of have turned against Russia. Nobody bitterness of the

will Pu-

ever know.

Both views are instill linger, there has been a final exclusion from the Baldwin whose influence at that

physical break Government of 1935, leaving him fallen to zero will ever be a cherish Czechoslovakia the assault on

the realm of conjecture. My own psychological and

with the past. What you see in who one

sat through "One day Presi- view, clear of responsibility for Govern- ed experience la my life."

Tel-Aviv today is not really familiar Then there is n

cient

completely ment policy until war was declared:

be a postponed might moving passage of Now one can see how lucky I was.

told me that he wor Over me beat the invisible wings" his feelings on re-

Was asked for averted I was wrong- turning to the Ad-

It was also that we had to learn miralty, after

suggestions about what the var to live in the world with a strong quarter of a cen-

should be called. Germany, although I little liked the tury; the signal to

I said at once The prospect. I don't have that worry the Fleet.

Unnecessary War.' now, and shall not unless we com- ston is back." giv

There

never was init the folly of rebuilding Germany. Ing, news of this

think

Chamberlain was war more easy unparalleled

to stop.

given credit, and does not triding

There you have from Churchilt, for uning years.

the challenge of British people by going to the limit A few feet be-

this volume. Its of patience with Hitler. I can ima- hind him, as he

theme is: How

gine only one condition worse than sut in his old

peoples September 1939, and that is if the English - speaking

nation should be split upon a similar issue.

HE

the

rearmament, he

land,

2

A CRITICAL

ANALYSIS

Win-

of

bes- the

by WILLIAM BARKLEY

chair. was the wooden map case he the

T

B8

at all. It is something Roosevelt these agonising debates, was that

had Bited in 1911, and in it still the through their unwisdom, careless chart of the North Sea where Ger- ness, and good nature allowed the

been wicked to rearm. man Fleet movemeals had

war

car

never

now.

Nobody bothers his head "any, longer about the rights and wrongs of the Arab and Jewish conflict. No such problem now exists.

On May 15 the State of Israel that. came into being, and that's There only remains puzzlement and get itvance that everyone else, every- not world, does the where in the

recognize the fact.

This new mental attitude produces a most noticeable feature in all this

bustling crowd seurrying.

streets a Tel-Aviv's

pervading sense of cheerful optimism.

No soldier I have met has the beat Churchill faintest doubt that he could

of the Arab pants off any urmies, if only he were allowed to get at them.

HE PRE-VIEWED THE SECRET OF RADAR

tells how all these four years, while he was pubilely attacking In dilatoriness Government's

Baldwin's was at

the Invitation sitting in secretly al birth of

radar on a Government research committee.

The Chamberlains to dinner at Admiralty House one night after a month of war. An officer entering to announce the sinking of one U boat with the soup, a second with third with the the sweet, and a

savs in his preface: "It is my the coffee.

marked. "Mrs Chamberlain with a

AT MUNICH

earnest hope that, pondering upon He visits the Fleet, "An entirely naive and charming glance: *Did

different generation filled the uni-

THE CHANCE WENT the past may give guidance in days you arrange all this on purpose?

to come," It was like assured her that if she would come forms and the posts.

So be 11. Churchill earns our THE Churchill produce a similar suddenly resuming a previous In-

Argument for the again we would

11 result."

carnation. It seemed that I was (Then an asterisk and a

unnecessary war is that at any gratitude all over again by his Im- footnote: "Alas, these hopeful re- that survived in the same position

But time, certainly up to 1937. and pos- mense labours in setting forth his long held so

ago.

sibly for six months more. France account. ports are not confirmed by the post- had

His future

unfold volumes will no, the dangers had survived, too

By force. How?

France and the melancholy tale until we come words

of diclated. No one had ever been over and Britain could have stopped 1.

together hat!

to where we are now. Poland, sufficient calls an the sine terrible course twice with what he

Should Britain

the whom we gave guarantees which we influence until day-to-day such an interval between.

could never carry oui, in worse I have once again to endure the strength and

Munich agreement to stop Hitler.

plight than before. One tyranny pangs of dismissal?"

war analysis."}

ills 1,000,000

memoranda nte

unequalled record of

conduct of war.

THERE_are

8ft. high, and could cut in learn

half a mile an hour.

to

fr

This product of the Churchill in ventiveness, originally called White Itabbit No. 6. was to scrape through the Siegfried Line. It never got a change.

by

clear that

What of the future?

10

of the truth of this we can say thrown down and another erected,

and

Britain impoverished

In

in

on

a very

from

I have only a guess at the Oght- ing strength of Haganah, but from

seen it is

now what I have

proposition different what it was when the war started.

Streams of supplies of all shapes and sizes have flowed in, and though no one will admit it, Haganah's prezent ability is largely due to the training which hundreds of its at one time or members received another in the British Army. Most engrossing is his account of SIEGFRIED MOLE

This optimism carries the majority the Cablet discussion from which, WAS NEVER TESTED

1940, he emerged Prime wo shall never know. To my mind more widespread and more menace of people along over nountin

It is at least a doubtful argument ing. in May

difßeulles. The average economic examples: they vary

leaning on Minister. Chamberlain's inclination

whether the use of force stops or treasure

foreign price level is up three and a half from an Imperious order

stay and, second, to

financial aid. frat, to

times over 1939. was, matches for provide enndles and

It costs the average We have to build up slowly again,

family man recommend Lord Halifax. A long starts a war. emergencles at the Admiralty (he

The most favourable moment was

to knit

our Empire resources to- from £60 to £80 a month just to It certainly seemed longer than 1930, when Hitler militarised

to the gether. had seen this precaution installed pause followed,

trade with develop

live. He can only just mage to at the Air Ministry) to the discus- the two minutes which one observes Rhineland. We in Britain saw no Russin, to

do it, because his wages are high- seek perseveringly

lo those pold in sion of Cultivator.

This "mammoth mole" weighed in the commemorations of Armistice

'occupy' German soll. The for good will, and a solid pulpit Amerien.

the more than 100 tons, was 75ft. lone. Day." Then Halifax spoke of the reason why German soldiers should economic development a foundation second only In spite of would

appearance of difficulties of being Prime Minister not

Baldwin Government

not for the highly moral discourses with

there are It became peer. as 4

which we seek to deafen the world plenty in shop windows

shortages now, and they are in- trench 5ft. deep. 74 feet wide at the duty would fall upon Churchill, encourage them to risk war.

"The prospect neither excited for

"Clemenceau - or Poincare would that does not listen to us,

creasing as factories wind down and A REMINDER

conscription takes inore and more slarmed me. I thought it would be have left Air Baldwin no option.". were dead.

men from the land. Anys Churchill. They

FOR OUR ENEMIES

This same opilmism Is tem- and it was Floridin for the best pinn."

'solving Vie Provisional Churchill's bellet that the Ger. How to make the voice of Britain porarily

difficulties. heard? To me, the most terrible Government's political never wanted

at any rale til The ups and downs of R com-

they because

would revelation In the Churchill book is For the moment, presumably manding figure, even in the House LTE saw the King nguin, who look man Kenerals

and quizzically lose it. His theory, and he had that nolther Hitler nor Stalin be- the general elections in November, there is a more Dr less united of Commons, where, as a rule, he is Ted searchingly unbeatable. He records how the for some moments, and then said: many sources of information, Is that loved we would go to war, as we

If Poland was political front. why on a show of force from our side pledged we would, Abdication raised Baldwin from the "I suppose you don't know

have attacked. the German generals would

Israeli Sentiment · depths to the pinnacle; while the I have sent for you?"

Adopting his mood, Churchill re- stopped Hitlor in 1938 and onwards. ich this hurried guarantee was When I recall the solemnity with same event destroyed the whole of

the simply could not Certainly in their captivity

THE embryonle civil war has been to endorsed

Westminister, his own influence in the "Arms and piled: "Str. I

and now only a The King laughed German generals have had time to the Covenant" movement he was Imagino why."

of terrorists defy the Jeading.

and said: "I want to ask you to

Government from behind barbed seriously. All summer of 1930, although he form a Government Churchill re amplify this notion General Hul- shocking to think that the persons

Goering, Goebbels, and fimmler honourable members

wire, or from underground bilde- had been made fully aware of what plled that he would certainly do so. der, Chief-of-Staff, teils how Hitler, most concerned did not take the handful

to be

at arrested

Hitler postponed his attack for a eight

outs. Overwhelming disaster had fallen. were all по he had going forward."

sweeping o'clock on September 14, 1030, but week to give of mind. Stalin that there is not the faintest hope Britain time to an- The inevitable result of this in communication with the

Germans former The

four o'clock word came that nounce n chango King Edward.

through France and the Netherlands. at

acceptance of Count "Presently, In hls distress, he What were Churchill's thoughts on Chamberlain was flying to Berchica- told Churchill at the Kremlin in of Israel's

proposnis. August 1942: "Our Impression was Bernadotte's to power in such a gaden. So netlon was deferred. asked the Prime Minister for per- being called

If I may use a phrase which I that the British and French Govern-oven little chance of a compromise mission to consult me. Mr Baldwin moment?

Churchill employ In ments were not resolved to go to based on those recommendations. gave formal consent and, ba this bo- "I was conscious of a profound have, licard

"What we have got we will hold," Ing conveyed to me, I went to the sense of relief. At last I had the debate with great effect: "If you war It Poland were attacked."

over bellove that you will belleve any. They ken noo, as the Scotsman says the man in the street. give directions King at Fort Belvedere. I remain authority to

all what wo Iesson which

we could haven't got ed in contact with him till his the whole sceno. I felt as if I were thing." Churchill, does not believe myn. It is abdication, and. did my utmost to walking with destiny, and that all this porticular yarn. "Such is the foreigners will remember to their easily take and maybe we will," Eays, "which historians advantage. Our past proclaims ourThis sentiment is echoed in higher plead both to the King and to the my past life had been but a pre- tale," ho

places for paration

this hour and should probe." publle for patience and delay,"

was

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