OVERSEAS OPINIONS

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 283, 24 August 1940, Page 15

OVERSEAS OPINIONS

Barbarous Parentages. “We are not dealing with a foe who reckons in military terms of a 70 per cent, casualty list worth while if 30 per cent, be left to gain victory,” says Sir. Ernest Brown, Secretary of State for Scotland. “Wo are dealing with the leader of a new tyranny having no regard whatever for human life—a leader who will not liestitate to take a 05 per cent, risk if by the end of the day he can retain a 5 per cent, margin for victory.” Peace As Free Men.

“We want peace, now and forever,” said Governor Lehmann at the opening of the New York Fair. “But peace us free men. Peace, to live and to speak and to thing as we wiilj not as we are whipped into doing. Peace, each man to worship as his conscience dictates. Peace and security from constant fear of violence and oppression and injustice. We are deeply grateful that here we still have the -blessings of religious and civil liberty. Many of us have become smug and complacent. And smugness and complacency are the greatest enemies of man’s liberties.’’

The Italian Dagger. “On this tenth day of June, 1910, the hand that held the dagger has stuck it into the back of its neighbour. We send forth our prayers and our hopes to those beyohd the seas who are maintaining with magnificent valour their battle for freedom. In American unity we will pursue two obvious, simultaneous courses: We will extend to the opponents of force the material resorces of this nation, and harness and speed up the use of. those resources in order that we ourselves may have the equipment and training equal to the task in any emergency. We will not slow down or make a detour. The signals call for Full Speed Ahead. I call for an effort of courage, sacrifice, and devotion. Granting a love for freedom, all these are possible, and the love of freedom is still fierce and steady in the nation today.”—President Roosevelt. American Aid to Britain.

“You may ask do we want your help? My answer is, of course, we want your help. Any help in munitions you can give us and without delay, but what you do about this is for yourselves to decide. We in England believe that the very essence of free civilization is in individual and national responsibility. We, therefore, accord you exactly the same freedom of decision as we claim for ourselves. Time in war is everything, and nobody knows that better than Hitler. He means to get control of the British and French Fleets and the naval bases that are essential to world power this year if he can. I do not offer you any advice as to what you should do about this grave problem any more than it is for you to offer us any advice as to whfit we should do with our Navy if and when that crisis comes.”—Lord Lothian, the British Ambassador to America. The Leviathan.

i‘We are faced by an enemy who has behind him the largest, the most industrious, the best disciplined, and the most highly organized people in the world. For seven years he has been building up his armed strength, exciting our derision by his avowed prefer ence for guns over butter. He uses a diplomacy in which audacity and treachery are served by a system of espionage and intrigue such as the world has never known. In all countries, near and far, he has his agents who affect every shade of political opinion and assume every kind of disguise. No detail of life is too small or trifling for their attention. Propaganda, suggestion, and intimidation have been developed by assiduous care to such finished arts that our easy, nonchalant methods look like a nursery game of hide and seek. Never in the history of the world has so much time, energy, intelligence and will been concentrated on one object—that of establishing the power of a system by ruthless force and universal intrigue. That is the Leviathan with which we are struggling.”—“Manches ter Guardian.”

The Aliens.- ■ “The Government is most anxious to avoid causing hardship, but 1 am advised that a general review of all aliens who recently have been interned would,, at the present time, be really impossible. It is not, in fact, possible "to prove a man’s bona tides,” said the Duke of Devonshire, in the House of Lords, speaking for the Government. "I have no doubt that the vast majority of these unhappy people, for whom X feel the deepest sympathy, are genuine refugees from Hitler and are 100 per cent, with us in our endeavours to overthrow him; but equally there can be no doubt that there are some others, and it is difficult to decide between them. There is also the consideration that in some cases the safety of these people themselves require that they should be interned. So far, we have not had heavy bombing over England. It is not unreasonable to say that we may expect much heavier bombing in the not distant future, and the consequent violent exacerbation of public feeling against the Germans may react upon these unhappy people if they aye not interned. While the Government constantly puts the consideration of public safety first, it is sympathetic so far as these people 'are concerned in the extremely difficult circumstances of the case.”

The Bandit’s Chance. “The temptation of a rival nation's temporary embarrassment has proved irresistible to the Italian bandit. He thinks he sees his chance of mortally stabbing the country whom his confederate is battering farther north; and he believes lie can snatch slices of the British Empire while it also, like France, is engaged in a tight for life.

“ ‘The herded wolves, bold only to pursue; The obscene ravens, clamorous o’er the dead; Tim vultures to the conqueror’s banner true. . . .’

“No doubt they think they see their chance of booty. But France is not dead and Nazi Germany i.s not yet the conqueror. JV'ith their whole serried might, the two challenged democracies, helped to the utmost of their strength by the smaller countries whom the tiger has already struck down and disabled, will fight back; and they will conquer. The resources of the British Comnionwealtli and Empire are hardly yet tapped. The British race i.s fighting not only for its own existence but also for the survival of liberty and fair dealing between the nations of the earth. There are other countries al.-o which care for these tilings and which may take a hand; but, whatever the ordeal and whatever the setbacks of the first, phases of this struggle, it is wholly inconceivable that the British and French peoples will ever surrender their cause to the banded enemies of civilization.’' —“The 'Times,” London.

An Account With Mussolini. “Whatever blows we receive,” says the “News Chronicle,” London, “in the Mediterranean, in the Near East or in Africa—and for a short period Italy will be able to give heavy blows—we can bo certain that we shall hit back with all out strength till Fascism is crushed. Mussolini, like Hitler, has made war in his own good time. It will end in ours. And before that time comes the Ducc will feel the full effect of Italy’s economic weakness, her vulnerability to blockade, and her naval inferiority. There is a big account outstanding with the Ducc, and that account now falls due for settlement. The final reckoning may be postponed for some time, but when it comes it will be complete. By his action Mussolini has made inevitable tne destruction of .his regime and of himself.”

President and People. Mr. Robert Waithman, the New York Correspondent of the “News Chronicle” London, writes: —“The truth now appears to be that the American people, which for so long has held President Roosevelt back in all his attempts to shake off the dangerous shackles of isolationism, are now suddenly ahead of the Government. In Washington, political leaders are still afraid of compromising themselves before the November elections, and plans for helping the Allies, though they might be progressing faster than appears from newspapers, arc still talked about in whispers as though they were still politically dangerous. But outside Washington every indication is that the people are as anxious now to see the United States join the effort to defeat Hitler as before they were anxious not to join it. The American people can grow angrier yet, and the signs arc that they will.” Scientists and War. “Having regard to the highly technical nature of modern warfare, with its manifold contacts with, and dependence upon, geographical and meteorological knowledge, engineering, chemistry and chemical industry, medical science, psychology, and so on, it is obvious that men of science are closely concerned in the construction of an adequate policy of national defence as well as the formation of an adequate structure of peace. They have an important part to play, both professionally and as citizens. The association of science with war and the prostitution of scientific effort to war purposes cannot be condemned too strongly, yet few scientific workers would wish to avoid participating in adequate and effective methods of national defence, or to fail in their service to the high humanistic- ideals for which science stands. Every nation has the right to decide upon its own form of government —democratic or autocratic —just as it must be left free to follow its own religious ideals. When the deliberate policy of a State is to impose its system by force upon people who wish to be free and have entirely different ideals, all believers in liberty of conscience and in the principles of natural cultural development should range themselves against such aggression.” —Sir Richard Gregory. The Props of Isolation.

“It has always been apparent,” says the “Economist,” “that American isolationism rested on two props, of which the unwillingness to become involved in Europe’s quarrels has always been less important than the belief that involvement was unnecessary since America’s security was adequately protected by the European democracies. Knock away the second prop, as it has been rudely knocked away in the past fortnight, and the unwillingness to intervene disappears beneath the sudden realization of America’s own national interest. In the last few days it has been propounded from a thousand platforms, with the air of a new discovery, that,the cheapest and most effective way in which America can protect her own security is by assisting the Allies. This doctrine is now carrying all before it. In one authoritative metropolitan newspaper it has already been carried to its logical conclusion in the advocacy of a declaration of war against Germany. This is still the voice of a tiny minority, but the to do everything short of war to help the /lilies is so nearly unanimous that Colonel Lindbergh’s restatement of pure isolationism has done more harm to the Colonel’s reputation than good to the ’cause he has sponsored. Eminent citizens in all parts of the country are forming and joining organizations whose purpose is to assist the Allies.”

An Open Letter to Congress. ,In an “open letter” to the United States Congress calling for immediate effective aid to the Allies, Miss Dorothy Thompson, the noted American journalist, and wife of Mr. Sinclair Lewis, the novelist, writes in the New York “Herald-Tribune”:—“You must act to protect the instruments of defence we already have at the place where they are already engaged in battle —-namely, the British Navy in the North Sea and at Gibraltar, and the French Army in France. For, if they go, the United States has lost the war, and lost its power, and will be the prisoner of Hitler. There is talk in Washington now of building a two-ocean navy. Gentlemen. if the British Navy goes into German hands our destiny will have been settled before a keel is laid. There are times in history 'when a cruel choice cannot be avoided. This is such a time. If you are determined that the Nazi flag shall not wave over the world nor we.live as ils subjects, if you are determined that the principles of the Declaration of Independence and of Lincoln shall not perish from this earth, you should go to war, and go now. The logic of facts is inexorable. We should move now.” An Unendurable Evil.

“We do not always realize," said Mr. Harold Nicolson, M.P., “how unendurable is the evil against which we are now fighting. It is not only that Hitler and his confederates have lor seven years been skilfully planning the destruction of the French and British people. When I contemplate the savagery of their attack; when I reflectujion the turpitude of their methods; when my heart is wrung with pity for those small but valued nations whoso liberties they have trampled in the mud; when I think bow the ambition of these evil men lias spread death and fire over peaceful cities or over fields basking in the loveliest .summer there has ever been; when I look forward with sorrow, but. without fear, to the ordeals to which our own beloved country is to be exposed; I am filled with profound unhappiness that such wicked things .should come to pass. But when I realize that behind all these iniquities is the greatest iniquity of all, the revival of cruelly and fear. I find that my sorrow and my unhappiness are but weak things in comparison with the surge of anger which arises in my soul.”