THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 9, 5 October 1940, Page 10

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments—Reflections

A. Prayer for the Nation. O God, Who hast taught us in Thy holy Word that Thou dost not willingly afflict the children of men; grant that, in the present time of warfare and distress of nations, our people may know Thy presence, and obey Thy will; remove from us arrogance and feebleness; give us courage and loyalty, tranquillity and self-control, that we may accomplish that which Thou givest us to do, and endure that which Thou givest us to bear. Amen.

“Whatever mitigates ‘the woes or increases the happiness of others, that is my criterion of goodness; and whatever injures society at large; or any individual in it, that is my measure of iniquity.”—-Burns.

The King's African Rifles, with whom Benito’s Boys are making painful acquaintance, are a body of troops known dimly to stay-at-homes but with a fame of their own. Interesting sidelights on their characteristics are shed in “African Escapade” by Roger Courtney, who served as a reserve officer in the regiment. They are described as undoubtedly the best native troops in Africa. “Radio work—both transmitting and receiving in Morse—beliography, semaphore, and lamp-signal-ling, they lap it up. And these, mind you, are natives who are unable even to spell in English, most of them. They can, too, repair any of these instruments in a most efficient manner and can take a jammed machine-gun to pieces and put ft together again iu the dark . . . And in action they are always cool and perfectly disciplined.”— “Lucio,” in the “Manchester Guardian."

The U.S. Army’s secret aeroplane detector, having passed the laboratory test, is undergoing its final service test in the current manoeuvres. The device is believed to pick up the rays given off by a plane’s engine. It has nothing to do with the famous listening “cars" or locators, which pick up the sound of a plane’s engine, and are used with anti-aircraft artillery. It has a far greater range than a sound locator, and it is believed that planes cannot be shielded to prevent detection. The new detector is not intended to replace any existing weapons or equipment employed in air defence, but will supplement them powerfully, providing the defenders with an almost certain warning of impending attack. The device helps to give the defenders sufficient time to get their own defending pursuit aviation into the air, and that is the function of all air-warning services—Mr. Hanson W. Baldwin, military correspondent, of the “.New York Times.”

Helping the Red Cross by killing chickens which were raffled for that deserving cause, as in the South of England, or making craters in fields to view which charges were levied on visitors for other war charities, as in the Scottish Border country, are not the only ways in which Goering’s bombs are unintentionally doing us a good turn. When the other day a number of German bombers dropped their eggs in the sea off a Scottish east coast village the inhabitants were the next morning given unexi>ected compensation in the form of a plentiful supply of fresh ilsh, killed by the concussion of the bombs and deposited by the tide on the beach at their very back doors. Recently, too, a small-line fishing boat’s crew, who were forced to cut their lines adrift when they were bombed—without damage, as it happened—by an enemy aircraft, stayed behind to reap such a catch of fish, floating dead or stunned on the surface of the sea all around them, as they never had hoped •to catch by means of the lost lines and hooks.—From the "Manchester Guardian’s” miscellany.

Silent and empty across the plains and bills of Alsace-Lorraine stretch it he deserted fortresses of the Maginot Line, shattered ruins with gaping holos in their 10ft. concrete walls. This fortified line, considered to he impregnable against, attack, is mute witness to the might of German strategy and German arms. Some of these fortresses were built with walls of reinforeed concrete 10ft. in thickness, topped witli gun turrets of steel lOin. thick. Once dented, the concrete crumbled under fire like a wall of plaster. The concrete appeared to be of extremely poor quality, little better than that used to build an ordinary concrete road. The iron bars with which it was reinforced were little thicker than a finger and could easily be bent with two hands. It appeared as though the concrete, if attacked energetically enough and long enough with a pickaxe, could be breached as effectively with this weapon as with artillery. Tile German shells, tired at close range, went through the gun turrets like a nail 'through n tin can. The fortresses might, have stood up against long-range artillery shells, which strike at an angle. But the Germans wailed until they could surround tin? forts mid attack them at point-blank range. Against this method of attack they were entirely inadequate.- -Mr. Percival Knauth. in a message to the “New York Times.” from Strasbourg.

England, To The Sea: Hearken, O Mother, hearken to thy daughter; Fain would 1 fell thee what men tell to mo, Saying that henceforth no more on any water Shall I be first or great or loved or free. Therefore, u Sea, I, standing thus before thee. Stretch forth my bauds unto the surge ami say : Then they come forth who seek tills Empire o’er thee, And I go forth to meet them—on that day. God grant to us the Md Armada weather. The winds that rip. the heavens Hint sloop and lour, Not till (lie sea and England suit together, Shall they be masters! let them brash that hour! —R. E. Vernede.