THE BEAST ABROAD

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 22 April 1941, Page 4

THE BEAST ABROAD

THE Beast has been abroad again desecrating those precious things at the heart of our Empire revered by every Briton even though his eyes might never have gazed upon their mellowed beauty. More of the Wren masterpieces have been wounded or destroyed. St. Paul’s has been hit once more, this time in the north transept. A bomb carried away the famous “saucer” dome, tons of masonry were blown out of the floor of the crypt, nearly all the windows, including many dating back to Sir Christopher Wren’s time, were broken and statues of famous British generals were mutilated. Wren lies buried beneath the choir of St. Paul’s, and in the debris, though apparently intact, an observer noted the marble slab with the great architect’s own memorial inscribed on it: “If you seek his monument look around you.” This Classical epitaph will now be read with a new meaning as it lies among the ruins, for round about is the monument of the “new order” of Nazidom, the cult which will go down through hundreds of years of history as destroyer of the most inspired work of noble minds. On its latest visitation the Luftwaffe has added to its ignoble record several other of London’s historic buildings, such as the City Temple, Chelsea Old Church, Guy’s Hospital, Chelsea Royal Hospital, all sacred landmarks which have been profaned. What the Luftwaffe has not been able to destroy is the spirit of ages which has grown up and flowered in these surroundings—that indefinable something which is the spirit of Britain. Now the Nazi fury threatens to vent its frightfulness against Athens, ancient spring of Western culture, and Cairo, holy city of the Moslems. But, in the fervid hope it may prove a deterrent, the threat has been

paralleled by another, from No. 10 Downing street. If the classical beauty which is Athens is to be despoiled and the Moslem conscience is to be outraged by an attack on Cairo, then retribution must be exacted from Rome. It is a startling commentary on the pass to which western civilisation has brought itself that it sets out deliberately to destroy the sources from which it sprang. But no Briton will question the necessity for Mr Churchill’s firm warning. It may result in the saving of some of the irreplaceable relics of antiquity. These things belong to the world rather than to a particular nation. If it were not for that they would not deserve consideration, for, after all, what are stately edifices and masterpieces in stone and bronze compared with the lives of innocent women and children who are being sent to their death nightly by an enemy who has learned nothing from the past except how to practise murder in a more scientific and coldlycalculated manner?