THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 157, 29 March 1941, Page 10

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments—Reflections Intercession. O God, we thank Thee for the privileges Thou hast given us in our birth and upbringing in this land and Empire. In whatever place Thou hast set us, help us to be worthy, and to preserve Thee faithfully in our day and generation. Deliver us from foolish arrogance and from a vindictive spirit towards enemies. Let us not be blind to our own faults and shortcomings, and to those of the nation and Empire. In Thy mercy correct and remove all that Thou seest amiss. Help us to seek the best for all. Amen. * * '♦

•‘The Hitler Youth Corps is a corporation emphatically masculine in style of uniform; manly, too, as re gards Its unconditional point of view, brutality, and barehness of outlook.”— Herr von Schirach, Nazi leader of the German Youth.

“The question is whether, in the face of a universally recognized move meat of force to invade and conquer, peaceful nations shall wait till the invader crosses their boundary lines or whether they shall recognize that this is a world movement of conquest and invoke the law of self-defence before it is too late.” —Mr. Cordell Hull, U.S.A. Secretary of State.

“A noteworthy by-effect of the Nazi invasion is the marked revival of patriotic sentiment in a country which has never had any jingoistic leanings and even used to be rather stinting in its show of patriotism. Yet when, for example a couple of weeks ago a hundred thousand Copenhageners rallied in the Faelledparken for the singing in common of Danish folk-songs—it was the first gathering of its kind in the capital of Denmark—this was a powers ful, if discreet manifestation of the new national spirit.”—J. Joestin, in the “Fortnightly.”

“Democracy reached its lowest point in all history just before the evacuation of Dunkirk. We cannot doubt there has been a recovery since. What we would like to be sure of is that recovery has gone far enough to ensure ultimate victory for the free nations. We must hope for such victory for, without it, civilization as we have known it will disappear. We cannot yet take it for granted. It calls for more strength, more courage, and more sacrifice than we as a nation have yet displayed in this crisis. Democracy has been a doctrine and a habit. It has been complacent. Now it must become a living flame, or it will die.” —“New York Times.”

“It would be idle to expect the war to come to an end because the German people are tired, bearing the burden of exhausting years and dis appointed hopes. But the state of mind of Germany would become important once a movement of liberation began in Europe. The Germans are hated in every country. This is not less true of Italy, the ally of the Nazis, than of those peoples who are . their victims. If once the bitter detestation and longing for vengeance bred by the Nazi system found an opportunity, Germany would have to withstand a great popular force. . . . To the Germans at home the discovery of all this passionate hatred would come as a shock, for no people has been taught so successfully to believe what it is told. In this way the Nazis are undermining their own power of resistance. So long as victories seem to vindicate the judgment of their rulers they will put up with great disappointment and hardship.”—“Manchester Guardian.”

Referring to the paucity of news iu 'he early months of the war: “The old sailing-ship men used to believe that at the heart of every cyclone there was a quiet space, which we know to be true; but they believed also that in this quiet space there sheltered all the birds, butterflies, a-11 the tropical flowers that had been blown about in the vast circle of the winds. To them that quiet space was full of an un imaginable richness of colour and life, of tiny beating hearts, recovering from the breathless spinning of the enemy. We know that in the latter, supposition they were wrong. That in the quiet heart of the cyclone men could take breath and find courage again and set themselves Once more to study the ‘wind-rose,’ but that any fragile lives blown into it would have died. That is the nearest analogy I can‘give you of this blank we in England are living in now. We are, I think and hope, studying our ‘wind-rose.’ The ship’s course will be well and truly set, but only the feeling of unearthly and unnatural stillness is observed by those who are the passengers and not the navigators in the chart-room.”— From “London Front,” by T. F. Jesse and M. Harwood.

“It is apparent in Norway that this small country, like most countries in Europe today, is experiencing a form of civil warfare. Partly due to the restraining presence of the German army, partly as a result of the calm Norwegian temperament, this civil war has proceeded thus far with little violence. The issues tit slake are no less important because they are being fought without bloodshed, and because most of the citizens of Norway are taking little active part in the struggle. Except for a few active politicians on both sides, the Norwegian people either are content to, remain mere spectators of the conflict within thei' country or have remained quiescent out of fear. The. Norwegians seem to realize that the outcome of the civil war iu their homeland probably will not be decided by the Norwegians themselves. They understand that their domestic struggle has been swept into the infinitely larger struggle between two great Powers with opposing interests and ideas. So Norway waits today as the little countries in Europe often have waited, for others to settle its destiny.”—Demoree Bess, in the “Saturday Evening Post,” U.S.A. <■ * * A “Major Operation.” I go deliberate, with a surgeon’s hate, No “God-be-thanked” heroics stir my youth, I go because there’s something to be done: A “major operation” on a state That’s grown a cancer in the head of truth. But after? Oh, I’d like to have a sou. —Patrie Dickinson, in “The Observer” (London).