Evening Post. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1940. THE SPIRIT OF TWO WORLDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 144, 14 December 1940, Page 10

Evening Post. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1940. THE SPIRIT OF TWO WORLDS

"The worlds of Eton College and Adolf Hitler are two different worlds—one for the sons of a stupid aristocracy and the other for the sons of the people." Thus Hitler in his latest hymn of hate against the Britain which he can bomb but cannot break. And even while he was speaking the Nazi bombers were raining bombs upon another "military objective," damaging a chapel 500 years old, smashing priceless stained glass windows, and classrooms built by Sir Christopher Wren, the builder of St. Paul's Cathedral. It is possible—but not probable—that the bombing of Eton was not deliberate, that the Nazis were really aiming at the nearby Windsor Castle, for the Hitler hatred makes no distinction between a Royal Family loved and trusted by the Empire and a college symbolic of so much that is English. But the Hitler reference (not aimed at Mr. Churchill, the Nazis' usual arch-enemy, who is a Harrovian) and the time chosen more than suggest a deliberate choice of the college. We do not know the exact dates of the bombings, but they must have taken place close to Eton's Founder's Day, which is December 6, and the 500 th anniversary of the college foundation. "The King's College of our Lady of Eton, near Windsor," was founded in 1440-41 by the pious Henry VI, and as it was dedicated to St. Nicolas, patron of children and prototype of Santa Claus, it is probable that the foundation took place on St. Nicolas' Day, December 6, which was the King's birthday. It would be in keeping with the vindictive viciousness of so much of the Nazi bombing if that day were chosen to illustrate with high explosive the superior Nazi culture which is "for the sons of the people." Perhaps in the distorted mind of the Fuhrer, the bombing of Eton, which is "for the sons of a stupid aristocracy," appears to reinforce his claim to be the leader of a new socialistic order in which there will be prosperity for the poor. But.England knows that this champion chose the homes of the poor in East London for earliest destruction, and the poor will spurn his leadership as decisively as Islam has rejected Mussolini's claim to be its protector. The bombing is one more in the long catalogue of crime against those things which are hallowed by tradition and beauty. Eton was described some years ago by a writer in "The Times" as "one of 'the last enchantments of the Middle Ages,' a place of singular beauty." The influence of its buildings and environment, he wrote, goes probably far deeper into the national life than may be suspected. Beauty begets beauty, sometimes of ramifications so remote that the original impetus may! not always be traced. Thus King Henry's poem in masonry inspired | Gray to a poem in words, which in turn inspired Blake to poetry of design and colour. "They dreamed not of a perishable home," nor of one which would make no impression andj excite no emotion, who could build | Eton chapel. j And this original beauty has been sanctified through 500 years by thej beauty and strength of a noble tradition—a tradition that has given Britain many of her greatest soldiers and leaders, a tradition symbolised by the memorial to over 1100 Etonians who fell in the Great War. Bombs may mar the beautiful chapel, but they cannot smash the spirit of Eton, for if anything has been proved in the months of Nazi terrorism it is that that spirit lives throughout Britain. The Duke of Wellington, who was himself at Eton for a time, said that "the Battle of Waterloo was won on the fields of Eton." The saying has often been misapplied as a tribute to the value of organised games. Actually, it referred to something quite different. It was made when the Duke, visiting the college years after Waterloo, saw the memorial to one of two boys who fought doggedly through over twenty rounds till one succumbed. It was the dogged endurance, the spirit that refused to admit defeat, that won Waterloo and crushed Napoleon. It is the same spirit manifested in all ranks and classes in Britain that has robbed Napoleon's fanatical imitator of victory, and interposed between him and world domination an impassable barrier. Hitler may think to destroy these' things when he destroys the ancient and beautiful buildings that speak of them. And Eton chapel is one that has spoken eloquently. Dr, W. H. Fitchett, the Australian author of "Deeds That Won the Empire," has

told how.he was thrilled by a service in the college chapel. It was quite an ordinary service till it came to the hymn "For All the Saints," and the voices of hundreds of boys rang out in the words: Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress, and their Might; Thou, Lord, their Captain in the wellfought fight; Thou in the darkness drear their one true Light. Alleluia! It seemed that every boy, in that place, surrounded by the memorials of the heroes and leaders of centuries, must feel that he was indeed "compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses." Yet. what the Nazis cannot understand is that, though the British people may be stirred to fierce anger by mad and wanton destruction of their historic churches and colleges, the spirit is indestructible. From Eton and other old schools thousands of men have gone out with the message that Newbolt found in Clifton Chapel: To count the life of battle good, And dear the land that gave you birth, And dearer yet the brotherhood That, binds the brave of all the earth, j Though buildings may be wrecked the men will keep the message and "falling fling to the host behind" the torch that will light the way to a world of liberty—a world truly different from the world of Adolf Hitler.