THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 118, 12 February 1941, Page 6

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments —Reflections

"A little thing is a little thing, but faitlil'illness in little things is a very great thing.”—St. Basil.

"Sonic say the age ot chivalry is past. The age of chivalry is never past so long as there is a wrong left unredressed ou earth, or :i man or woman left to say, ‘1 will redress that wrong or spend my life in the attempt.’ The age of chivalry is never past so long as we have faith enough to say, ‘God will help me to redress Upt wronger if not me, He will help those that come after me, for the Eternal Will is to overcome evil with good.’ ” —C. Kingsley.

-■When the armistice with Germany was sought the French armies were in a critical situation, outnumbered in efficient fighting men and more than outweighed in material. For instance, the Germans had 7500 tanks to 2000 and 5000 modern planes to 520. In these conditions the continuation of the war was a forlorn hope. The reasons for all this have been marshalled before—reduction of production due to such political causes as insistence on leisure rather than on toil and such military causes as faith in the defensive.”— New York ‘‘Times’ ” Vichy correspondent.

“Appeals are rolling in to the U.S.A. The Dutch East Indies have asked for planes and other equipment. So have the Philippines. Almost all of the 20 Latin-American republics need everything from bombers to battleships if they are to bear their share of hemisphere defence. On top of all this the United States is beginning a 15,000,000,000 dollar rearmament programme with little time to spare. Therefore a sort of munitions rationing system can be expected. The nation is cutting its own requirement to the bone —or as one official expressed it, ‘a little below the bone.’ Whatever can be produced above this irreducible minimum will go where it is most desperately needed. Great Britain heads the list because fully 85 per cent, of the American people are convinced that if she is beaten we will be next in line.” —New York “World-Telegram.”

“The Nazis’ instinct for sheer destruction incites them accurately when it prompts them to do their utmost to reduce such places as St. Paul’s and Westminster Abbey to ashes. For Germany is today shaped in the image of one of her own gloomy legends. She is the Dr. Faustus of the nations, and has sold her soul to the devil for flashy, immediate advantage. To her the past —including her own—means nothing. 11 is positively inimical. Smash it, destroy it, break down to dust anything, material or moral, which might give your enemy strength or afford some future indictment against yourself. Above all, corrupt or disrupt every focus of national activity, inspiration or tradition. Hence the unremitting nature of the air attack upon London, which can have no conceivable direct military advantage. Hence, too, the singling out of great historic buildings for special attention by the bombers.” —Dr. Henry Newnham, in the “Sunday Times,” London.

“Here at Dover, on the heights from which you can see the enemy’s gun flashes and the dim outline of liis coas.t there’s a sort of invisible vapour about which smells of war. It’s all-pervading. It’s almost as if one could catch a breath of the putrefaction which the Nazi has spread over Europe. Yes — you have got to come to Hie very edge of the island to realize adequately the threat of invasion. It would seem sometimes that it is easy to forget it. Easy to imagine the danger past because the worst hasn't yet happened-— that is the deadly error of Norway and Holland and Belgium. At this very moment, when curious political diversions are taking place—at this moment when the Hun is taking soundings about a so-called new order in Continental Europe—this is the time when the cobra may strike. Here there is a full awareness of it. Here, along these cliffs, so completely characteristic of England. I have come back to the Old Country from foreign parts through most of her gateways. None is so heart-lifting to Ihe returned exile as this harbour t know so (veil, with the English green above the white chalk.” - —A Royal Artillery officer, in a recent broadcast talk.

“Ages come and ages go in history. Is Hitler’s unity the right kind of an organization for our industrial age? We must answer that fairly. The fairer and more objective I try to lie. the clearer comes the answer—-No! Such roses planted with arms and nurtured only with the theory of -race and blood,’ would be paper flowers. Such an order would not free Europe, but enslave it. That peace would only be the extending of prison walls to enclose continents instead of courtyards. Europe needs business, but. it. cannot live merely from business. It is the world's chief home of idealism. Can (lie theory that blood is humanity's supreme criterion tiring us to brotherhood? Can hundreds of millions of us find peace in permanent subjugation? Can there lie peace without light? Can there be good will, when dictators lock churches? When youth is made to walk with the steps of geese? Can a group of men who have never ceased to exalt destruction make us whole and sound? Can those who command brutality to little people bring the world's little nations into a biotherliood? ('an those whose weekly and daily press pours out torrents of obscene scorn for others fo.-ieh IJS | h iw to respect one anotlior? Can roses grow ii: a garden n hose sunsliine is hatred and whose rain is pride?"—Mr |> h Markham, in Hie "Chirsiian Science -Monitor."

Ships That Pass. Not in the sunsliine. not. in the rain.

Not in tlie night of the stars untold, Shall we ever all meet again Or be as were in the days of old. But as ships cross, and more cheerily Having changed tidings on the sea, So I am richer by them I know. And they are not pourer. 1 trust, by me. —Smith.