CASUAL COMMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 18 May 1940, Page 6

CASUAL COMMENT

AND SOME OBSERVATIONS,

(By Observer.)

The debacle in Holland was no less a surprise than some of the other un- ; expected 1 incidents occurring ifcr the : War. The invasion itself was not a surprise, and as it was so inevitable for, weeks, .if not .months, ,it is remark- . able both Holland and .Belgium delayed calling for help till the last moment. [; The contingency .wasaiot without Allied ; knowledge,' and no doubt forces were. rushed forward without delay. What I is certain, is , the - splendid .sustained attack of the R.A.F. which, entered oil its ..task with ali zest:. ./That .great damage and loss -was inflicted on the ,invade,rs is. certain, for the conditions were the reverse of the. Polish experI ienee. The Dutch character is regarded 1 as quiet and stolid, and the ravaging is a. great blow to the. nation. Their pop- . ular Queen has reigned almost 50 year;?, ; and the “jubilee” is being marked with r ; an anti-climax. An appropriate action that of,.General Smuts in offering _ Her. Majesty, an . asylum in South Africa. .With 'Holland occupied, .tlie 1 jhas a. closer range..for the. long promised attack on Britain, but the j -fearless raking and clearing of enemy . , planes .by, the Allied,. machines for the , time being at least postpones tlie i.ini friendly.call.,. , ' " 8 fate is wrapped up in the , great clash now, going op.;/This; appears to be developing, into the real test,., and as- a.- consequence Allied strength must be used to. the limit. What.may transpire to Holland’s possessions is... anothermatter. It -is soiight to' maintain..the navy, intact and to hold possession of the Zeeland : islands. These objectives .would -,be- : useful to the Allied cause. The Indies'; are of great moment, and America and Britain appeared determined to main-' ! tain them as Dutch property. Possible i. developments in the Mediterranean, i j and the likelihood of some agreement i >' with' Italy and Japan, may have a. i bearing t»n the Fias't 'lndies lat fall. ' events. The Dutch authorities there ■ ! are vetry . resolute, considering : their ability to defend themselves beyond >; doubt, but Holland’s feeling. ayas-?’likens J wise and found to be quite, misplaced. - .! The international problem'-invblykdV as it is takes in Holland and her possess-. ■ ions as but one of the.-major’ issues now being determined by : the-fighting in Europe, with the chance of-the fray ! being extended to other parts of Europe and Asia. What a tremendous power the fur i machine is going to ,be following the developments arising out of the war. 1 Already it is a vital factor,' as is, in^ 1 dicated by the Allies’ part in disrupting the : German advance. Fighting by > the hundred from daylight to dark, no i si ivnw» &sk»vtb*tfupetr©i, 'will be cohserved so that there will be more available for the fighting forces!. Hundreds of ’planes some heavy bombers with a ton or more of loading, and the aerial speed, must consume oceans- < of petrol, a.hd one wonders how Ger-mffny’-s s stole is being eaten into. The causalties appear to be about.three or four to one Allied machine, which is possibly the superiority in numbers of the German ’plans over the Allies. ! Gradually (but at a terrible cost) the superiority is being overcome. Well may Lord Lothian speak of the import of the next 30 days, which should have ah exhausting effect oh/'-the store of machines and petrol, as well as. reserve pilots. The wisdom of Britain and Prance buying thousands of , warplanes in the United States can now he well understood. It' was on, the quayside of a minor British naval base, where two feet of snow piled up and the cables were . slippiiiig with the frost of morning—the. hardest Winter known in Britain for fifty years—l met by chance a man 1 knew well, said a writer in “Glimpses of the Fleet.” We stopped for a moment’s chat in the lee of a store house wall. He was on his way to the Senior Officers’ “cabin 1 ! in a railway waiting room, to report his arrival and get.fresh orders. “Much doing?” I asked. “Depends what you mean by much,” Tie replied.' We’ve been at . sea, for twenty-six days with one break of nine ■ hours at anchor. J’ve., just finished 44 hours on the bridge without a break. ; It froze everything in the ship—and wa nearly crashed into two different craft , that we never saw, for the snow .until i iwe were on top of them. Much do- i ,ing? No, nothing much—except that j there’s a war on.” Such a vignette | of those who serve on patrol duty on ,the high seas in all weathers. There j are other pictures of those .helping the I ) Allies to win the war. Here is an- \ {other: ,i The mine-sweeping men have: had j ian' appalling time with the miles of \ wire rope they have to handle when : getting the sleeps in and out. Tlie great “kites’” that hold the sweep in : position, under the water weigh at least half a ton, and the partly frozen winch : * ] has to be helped by hand-hauling to get the weight inboard. These wires, - like their opposite numbers on trawls ; with which the mine-sweeping men are ; familiar from boyhood, have a satanic * gift for tying themselves in superGordian knots if anyone makes the t least mistake in handling them. In ) the bitter cold, with perhaps twelve to \ fifteen degress of frost, those wire ropes are like brands to the flesh. Even the leather or strong knitted palms of the special mine-sweeping gloves only deaden the pain of touching !: the wires. Imagine hauling on them with a reluctant kite at tlie other end,. while your feet slide from under you on the glass-like plates of the deck and great clouds of frozen spray lash at you with every plunge of the restless ;

• ship. And to.iidd to. the misery, of it m all , your clothes are damp and half i, frojpakv slip! ■''round the end of the breakwater !; outside the harbour.. Despite oilskins t ,and despite .layer after layer. ;of your clothes are soaked.. lTho|c.sea lias the ~ biggest -power.; of penetration of anything ixi. this , ! Wdm! Moreover, the xvay a\ passing ! torrent oil its, swjirl apross the deck will, 'cletach a gallon ( or .two to climb up your legj and flop’over the tops of the seaboots land soak your three layers of stockings is one pf those marvels of. Nature that'the-seafarer could well do without. : :'.i ~y A fom; hours’ watch, at' action stations ip la,, patrol boat, or one of the escort vessels with a, convoy is, a fierce test of endurance in such a winter as we have had. The gunnery officer and his staff at the fire-control are entirely exposed to wind and , rain and spray, anil snow the whole time. They .go on wafch, like mummies, vast Falstaffs of clotliing, mountains of wool if-, not of flesh.. And they come off so numbed that it is physical agony to reach: the, comparative shelter between decks, there to-sit .unthinking and unfeeling for half an hour while they thaw. out. Often there . is the -., added ni-isery- of snowstorms. ' The landsman- battling his way borne from the, station against the driving flakes .knows something,, but only a little something, of what it is like: in North Sea or off. the Western Isles when the ship is plunging along through, heavy snow flurries. There is so little to be seen. It is as though the ship no,, longer-. existed, lib£* only "just tlni-t little boxed-in part where you are ■; standing was afloat and moving -towards a solid way of blankness. j With the announcement of the meeting of Parliament on the 13th June, so life of the-objection to the delay in calling Parliament together is being i met. It is an earlier date than usual, j but (the opposition would have (the j meeting still earlier. It is the resjponsiliility of the Government to dejcide, jahd the-decision must be rea!ported till it is tested in the House, ;Meantime, to-day the Auckland West election is to be determined, though avith the list of candidates, this is not likely .to indicate much variation in public opinion. The Labour candidate is exited to have a comfortable victory. The -retired members iof the Parliamentary party, Messrs. Lee and ' Barnard, continue their efforts to organise opposition to the Government, and it. will be interesting to see the 1 course taken by Parliament with the Speaker, The object of the new party ! is to .. drive a wedge into the Labour administration seeking for a irioro advanced socialist pokey. These signs of protest suggest a stormy session under unusual circumstances; unless [ good sense prevails, and for the time 1 being national affairs are put before ‘ personal ambitions. (