THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 120, 14 February 1941, Page 6

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments —Reflections

"Fur one man who can bland prosperity there are a hundred Hull will stand adversity.”—T. Carlyle.

"The day returns and brings us the petty round of irritating concerns and duties . . . Help us to perform them with laughter and kind faces : let cheerfulness abound with industry. Give us to go blithely on our business all this day. bring us to our resting beds weary and content and undishououred, and gram us in the end the gift of sleep. Amen.”—Robert Louis Stevenson.

"Seamen manning the pumps in a storm do not slop to argue about pay. That Britain will go on paying up to the limit of her available resources is beyond doubt. It is equally certain that, unless the war comes to an end with rapidity of which there is at present no sign whatever, those resources will be exhausted long before our requirements from America have even approached their maximum. The situation calls for a generous spirit on both sides of the Atlantic. YVe shall light to the very limit of our capacity. We are confident that America will supply our material requirements to the very limit of hers.”—Mr. G. Ward Price, in the “Daily Mail,” London.

"There is no longer any question that in France, both in the German-occupied territory and the section nominally controlled by the Retain Government, anti-German sentiment is increasing. A conservative computation is that twothlrds of the French people hope to see Germany defeated. It is their only hope of ultimate restoration to a status in any way resembling the old independence. To expect any active help from the French people for the British cause, because the great majority of them favour it, is another matter. There arc more than 1,500,060 French prisoners of war still in German camps. They are hostages for French obedience and good behaviour. Hitler does not hesitate to let it be known that if any German hair is ruffled in France it will be taken out on the French prisoners.”— From a European survey by Mr. F. I. Uirchall in the “New York Times.”

"The Netherlanders, as everybody knows, arc a stolid, determined and stubborn people. They are milking as much trouble as possible without incurring severe reprisals. A recent dispatch told of 2000 civilian Hollanders in German prisons and said that this figure was a conservative estimate. There is no doubt that the ‘unrest’ of which Himmler complains and to deal with which he summoned a council of officers is in large part Netherlaud. The weapon is passive resistance and these people know bow to use it. German rule is harsh wherever there is a question of authority. The Burgomaster of The Hague and the military governor of Amsterdam have been dismissed because anti-German demonstrations occurred in their jurisdiction. Several professors with anti-Fascist reputations have been sent to concentration camps. Professor de Y’ries of Rotterdam has gone to prison for 18 months for ‘fostering hatred of Germans among his students.’—Mr. F.’l. Birchall, in the “New York Times."

Would the gentle reader cure to guess wlmt party won the first local elections held in those parts of Poland and Finland which have been grabbed by Russia? The answer is correct. The people’s choice, as Moscow ‘Pravda’ stated, fell on Stalinist town and district candidates.’ Not all the voters saw the light. Some 'remnants of the inimical classes tried to interfere with the development of the campaign.’ To quote further from the inimitable Soviet organ:—‘By provocative rumours and despicable slander, of the candidates they tried to break down the preparation for the elections, but the electors themselves led by the local Communists, immediately unmasked their plans.’ Now let us translate those uncensored remarks into English. Western Karelia and Eastern Poland were not Communist until the Soviet troops marched in. Tlie carelessly used word ’remnants' explains why they are mostly Communists now. The 'remnants’ will not long remain. Though Moscow hides its fouler deeds, we do know that, the lot of the human remnants is starvation, prison, exile or death. Wo also know that ‘slander,' in ‘Pravda’s’ language, means courage to call treason, falsehood and vile cruelly by their real names."—“New York Times."

"The air distance from Alexandria or Cyprus to Naples is practically the same as from Naples to London, viz., a little tinder 1300 miles. Bombers carrying small loads can occasionally lly as far as that, as British bombers have done. But Crete is less than half the distance from Naples: and its use would enable us to bomb southern Italy just as regularly and effectively as we bomb Hamm or Hamburg. At Hie same time it would give our naval nulls sometbing like a stranglehold over Hie route to Libya. But Hie )>ossibilitles of Hie new situation extend even farther. From Hie Greek mainland and even from Crete we should have no difficulty in bombing tlie Rumaniau oil wells. An oil field will) its maze of derricks and its highly inflammable product is one of tlie most vulnerable of air targets. But upon the Rumanian oil supply the entire mechanized war effort of rhe Axis Powers —aircraft, tanks and transport —may very soon depend. Germany’s exploitation of that suppl.v to the exclusion of the Allies would justify destruction of ir nt the source —an incalculably swifter way of ending the war than our present one Of bombing in detail the separate oil de|iols a ini r< - liuei - ies sea I lered I broughoul enemy and eneiiiy-oiviipied countries."—"Suuday Times," Lomhm.

Tlie Glory ol Life. The Glory of Life is to love. Not to be loved ; To give, not to get : To serve, not to bo served ; To be a strong hand In the dark to another, In time of need; To be a cup of strength To any soul I n a crisis of wenkness : Illis Is |o know, The Glory of Life. —From a Corre.sormdeiu_