THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 43, 14 November 1941, Page 6

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments—Reflections

Men show their character in nothing more clearly than by what they consider laughable—Goethe. * * *

“A bad pilot in a good aeroplane is useless, a good pilot in a bad aeroplane is much better, but a good pilot in a good aeroplane is the guarantee of victory in the air.”—The Air Correspondent of the ‘‘Daily Telegraph,” London.

‘‘lf anybody asks me who was responsible for the British policy leading up to the war, I will, as a Labour man myself, make a confession and say, ‘All of us.’ We refused absolutely to face the facts. When the issue came of arming or rearming millions of people in this country, people who have an inherent love for peace, we refused to face the real issue at a critical moment. But what is the good of blaming anybody?”—Mr. Bevln, M.P.

“What is at stake is the atmosphere in which alone the Church can live, and in which alone she can speak to the sorely tried people of our time. What is at stake is the preservation or rediscovery of that power which alone will prove a match for the demon of Hitlerism, and will vanquish it as thoroughly as it must be vanquished if our hopes are to come true. What then is this war? It is a large-scale police measure which has become absolutely necessary in order to repulse an active anarchism which has become a principle. . . That is the only kind of war which we can be commanded to wage.” —Karl Barth in “A Letter to Great Britain from Switzerland.”

“I would rather see a nation of children brought up to take their food at humbler tables presided over by ‘Dad’ and ‘Mum’ than a nation reared on balanced meals in ‘refaned’ restaurants. Under the stress of war school feeding has become a general necessity. But I hope the medical profession will think twice before supporting a demand for communal meals as a normal thing for all children in peace-time. It is a very old. tradition that regards the taking of meals together as a strong binding element In family life. It is right and natural that husband and children should look to mother as the dispenser of food, who satisfies hunger and provides welcome treats on festive occasions. Probably more family discipline and parental authority depend on this than is commonly supposed.—Dr. Letitia Fairfield in the “British Medical Journal.”

"If Britain goes down, America north and south will have to fight for twenty years—if they last so long. Ireland is more important to America than Malta or Gibraltar to Britain. Malta could go, with a shrug of the shoulders, and the war be won just the same. Gibraltar, can be made unhealthy—it only means taking the long way round. But Ireland is America’s doorstep, far outranking Guam and the Philippines and Honolulu. Every cobblestone on Buncrana quay, every fathom of water in Cobh Harbour, is worth a million dollars to the America of today and tomorrow. Why cannot the American Government be given carte blanche to ‘interfere,’ in a problem everyone knows they can solve within a few weeks, and which British departmental methods have made a festering sore in the. otherwise healthy body of the West! Why not?"—Mr. Jim Phelan, in his book “Ireland —Atlantic Gateway.”

‘■Our Hong-Kong Correspondent reports that people there are convinced that Thailand will soon share the fate of French Indo-China unless Japan is told in so many words that any further move by her will mean war in the Pacific. In view of the vital British interests at stake, and the difficulty of ejecting the Japanese once they are allowed to march in, there can be little doubt about that; hnd public opinion here has so interpreted Mr. Eden’s language. Not content with threatening moves against Thailand in the south, Japan is also moving troops northward in Manchuria as a menace against Russia. But Russia has forces in Eastern Siberia which in numbers, Quality, equipment and leadership are likely to prove superior to anything which Japan- can send against them. And Russian possession of Vladivostok is of such vital importance in the common fight against Hitler that a Japanese attack upon it would be as much an attack upon Great Britain as upon ter Russian ally.’’-“The Times,” Loudon.

“Some years ago, certain well-mean-ing but ill-informed people iu England ma'de a public appeal for the restoration of German colonies. In view of the early records of all colonial Powers it would be unjust to condemn Germany for isolated cases of cruelty, like the actions of the notorious Karl Peters. Unfortunately there is a mass of evidence from German missionaries, Reichstag debates, and even Ministers, proving that cruelty was throughout the keynote of German colonial policy. While one Reichstag deputy declared ‘the colonies were regarded as a relief institution for those who lin'd failed at home,’ another supported colonies ‘so that our social life at home should be drained and its dirty waters let off.’ But responsibility attached to the. officials in Berlin as well as to the local administrators. One of the Reichstag's own colonial expert#—Herr Schlettwein—wrote in a pamphlet, ‘The feelings of Christianity and philnnthrophy with which the missionaries work must for the present be repudiated with all energy,’ and declared, ‘forced labour is just punishment and the best way of training them’ (the natives). —From “What to Do With Germany," by Colonel T. H. Minshall, D.S.O. Prophecy. "The time will come, when thou shalt lift thine eyes To watch a long-drawn battle in the skies. While aged peasants, too amazed for words. Stare nt the Hying fleets of wond’rous birds. England, so long the mistress of the sea. Where winds and waves confess her Sovereignty. Her ancient triumphs yet on high shall

bear And reign, the sovereign of the conquered air. —A remarkable prophecy ([noted by the Canadian Prime Minister. Mr. MaeKenzie King, and attributed by him to lines written in Latin, 200 years ago, by the author of the “Elegy written in a Country Churchyard.”