THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 190, 9 May 1941, Page 6

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments —Reflections

Adverse fortune is wont to reveal genius, prosperity to bide it. Horace.

"As things are, it is now the obvious policy to give Chungking every possible assistance—however that may be resenteo by a Japan that, in any event, is likely to be as hostile as she dare.”— “Birmingham Post.”

“We get news Hashes of people under duress, of bread riots, of sabotage, of bl nd revolts swiftly suppressed, but no picture of the day-by-day existence of the great mass of the people. Yet this untold story is the big story of the war. Whatever battles are lost and won. the future of Europe depends on what is happenln; to the lives, minds, habits of those millions in the dark.’-’—Anne O'Hare McCormick, New York "Times” columnist.

“We have 1.700.00 J mei in the Home Guard. Nearly 1,000,000 of the Home Guard have rifles or machine-guns. Nearly half of the whole Home Guard are veteran soldiers of the last war. Such a force is of the highest value and importance. A country where every street and every village bristles with loyal, resolute armed men, is a country against which the kind of tactics which destroyed Dutch resistance —tactics of parachutists or air-bornt troops in carriers or gliders, Fifth Column activities—if there were any over here, and I am Increasingly sceptical—would prove wholly ineffective. A country so defended would not be liable to be overthrown by such tactics.” — Mr. Churchill, in a House of Commons speech.

Mr. Churchill’s prophetic Insight: “It seems to me that the danger which has to be considered,” he said, “and which ought not to be excluded, is that Ireland might be neutral. . What guarantee have you that Southern Ireland will not declare neutrality if we are engaged in war with some powerful nation? . . . These are not ports which are part of the coastal defence of Ireland, they are the life defences of the crowded populatioin of England.

... In a war against an enemy possessing a numerous and powerful fleet of submarines these are the essential bases from wtlch the whole operation of hunting submarines and protecting incoming convoys is conducted.” —Mr. Churchill in 1938, criticizing the action of the British Government in handing over the Free State ports to the Eire Government.

“The blow that the British troops have dealt to the Italian Empire must have struck them in their pride more . even than in their materia) possessions. Worse than the earthly losses of the empire, of the hard-earned money sunk in the building of roads and of homes for settlers, is the loss Of self-confi-dence of the Italian people, who had i always suffered from a national in- 1 feriority complex. Mussolini had tried to eliminate It. A great part of his success had been achieved by his constant reminding that the Italian people were great and heroic. The Italians i loved it. It made their faces bright | with childish pride. How stunned and dismayed they must feel today at the news of the military reverses piled up on all their fronts. I can imagine their , grief It would be difficult, indeed, j for II Duce to stir then np to heroism now. This is the reason, perhaps, why the dictator remains silent, while during the Abyssinian campaign he spoke to his people at least once a month.” —A New York “Herald-Tribune" correspondent.

“It is sometimes said, and more often felt, that reconstruction belongs to the period after the war, and that a nation engaged in a life-and-death struggle has no time or thought to spare for it so long as the enemy still remains undefeated. This view is untenable for many reasons, and not least because organization for war and organization for pence are merely two facets of the same problem Both turn on the essential need for the full utilization and proper distribution of the powers of production and. though the proper distribution will be wholly different when peace returns, the principles Involved are the same. The expansion of industry dictated by the requirements of the war is already, by the problems which it creates, shaping the plan of future reconstruction : and this plan, set in motion—as it must and should he—here and now. will gather momentum as the war proceeds and wili eventually absorb, with the minimum of friction and delay, the resources of production released on the termination of hostilities.” —"The Times,” London.

“The French teachers have fared badly and are in sore straits. Their ■ national union, which enrolled 110.000 of the 135.000 public teachers of France, has been dissolv 1 by the Government. Some of its leaders have been ‘displaced,’ as a disciplinary measure for being responsible for its existence. In Paris the Germans were quickly on the premises of the International Federation of Teachers’ Associations: its offices in the Palais Royal. France’s gift to the League of Nations, are still shut and sealed. The Vichy Government's intention is to found an all-inclusive State association for public servants, membership of which it to be compulsory. The French teachers, who, unlike their British colleagues, are State servants, will be incorporated in the new association. which is to be shaped on orthodox authoritarian lines. Its leaders i must be approved by the Government, ; nnd will act under the direction of a Minister answerable to Marshall Petain. YVithiu this State association, departmental unions may be formed, but the sectional leaders also must be rubber-stamped by the Government. Highter adminstrative and executive i officials may not join, and all affiliations with other bodies are rigidly banned.”—Sir Frederick Mtinder, in I “The Schoolmaster.”

John Bull"Do ye ken John Bull, with bis clothes ■ so red? Do ye ken John Bull, with his upflung head? I Do ye ken John Bull, with no look- of | dread ? As he faces his fight in the morning.'' —The “Morning Post,” of Dallas, i Toxas. U.S.A. '