Timely Topics

Northern Advocate, 26 December 1940, Page 4

Timely Topics

“In case. there is anyone who is still lukewarm about ‘Our Liberties’ or thinks they are not worth fighting

LET THERE BE LIBERTY.

for, let him try to imagine a day without them',” writes

■ Mr A. P. Herbert. |M.P„ in a Macmillan war pamphlet, !“Let There Be Liberty.” “He wakes, a little anxiously, and sees the dayflight with relief, for in the dead of any night the political police rriay in- | vade his home without warning, 'or | without warrant. He finds, I suppose, a newspaper with his breakfast or at ; the station; but every day there is ! nothing in it but praise for his rulers and what they do, dictated by the same rulers. It is no use for him to say, as every indignant Englishman may do, ‘ I shall write to the papers about it,’ for there is no paper that may pirnt his accusations. . In the 'train, in the office, in the street, he will not speak his mind on any public affairs without lowering his voice. At lunchtime, in the restaurant, the notice, ‘Do not discuss politics,’ hangs over his table—not in wartime only but in peace. If it is a Sunday, he may go to his place of worship; but he cannot be sure that the priest will not be jn prison.”

( The bombs, explosive, igneous and joily, that have been sprinkled with

• careless generosity over meadow. ■ tilth, stubble, spinney and churchyard have made apparent a

j INTEREST DRIVES OUT FE£R.

cardinal difference between rural and urban psychology, says the “Spectator.” Rural folk have been sustained by a lively curiosity. They all know the exact locality of every shell within a wide area. They know the ?ize of the crater, the nature of the bomb, the effect on particular windows and how many rabbits have been and how badly killed. All the village boys know our various aeroplanes by name and sight. Interest has driven out fear. At the same time they regard the distributors of the bombs, especially if the church is threatened, as a sort of mad dog that must at all costs be destroyed, come what may. It never so much as occurs to them that a homicidal lunatic should not be beaten. They know he will. Their belief is something more than faith. It is a certainty. In one country place the hole in the ground that kept curiosity alive the longest and caused a ploughman to divert his furrow was at last shown to be the effect of a shell from a German bomber whose plane soon afterwards crashed into an elm. Queen Elizabeth’s oak is not more famous than that elm.

The cry of a young Pole, who perhaps does not fully appreciate the precautions a nation must take for its

RESTRICTION ON ALLIES.

own safety in these times is contained in the following , letter

to an English paper:“I am a Pole. .1 came here two years ago to learn English. I passed matriculation and I shall join the Forces as soon as I am old enough to do so. “I am thorougly loyal to this country and our cause. I would readily give my life for Epgland. It is a wonderful country and I love it with my heart. “Why, then, if I want to ride a bicycle in order to save bus fares, have I to write applications? Why am I cross-examined? ‘ What do you need your bicycle for? ’ and ‘ Where do you want to go with it? ’ and : What for? ’ Am I am spy? Do the police consider or suspect every Ally of spying? There are many thousand aliens here, our Allies, who have lost their families, their properties, in our cause, people who have after all that lost their desire for living. The only thing that makes them live on, the only spark of hope in them, is our ultimate victory. And these people are subjected to registrations, curfews, restrictions, restrictions imposed on them by whom? By the people who make up their last hope.”