NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23573, 6 February 1940, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS

NEUTRALITY IN QUESTION "In the next war," said President Wilson in 1917, "there will be "0 neutrals." But tho "next war" is now with us and there are many neutrals, writes Mr. J. B. Firth. Those countries which are closest to the belliger-r ents were the first to proclaim their strict neutrality. They are having a bad time, which will necessarily grow worse as the war becomes more intense. Not only are the neutrals menaced but neutrality itself. Indeed, one of the questions of the hour is: "Can neutrality survive?" Some, in fact, are asking: "Ought neutrality to survive?'' EIRE AND THE I.R.A. The Irish Government has discovered the plans of an armed rebellion with which the I.R.A. intended to celebrate Easter in memory of the outbreak of Easter, 1916, notes the Daily Telegraph. The extremists are still "agin' the. Government," though it is now the Government of Eire. Public knowledge of this conspiracy should strengthen Mr. de Valera both in the Dail and in the country. Mr. Gerald Boland, the Minister of Justice, has not minced words in denouncing the terrorists, in warning the country of their command of explosives and in exposing their dependence on foreign funds. Large sums of money from America, he told the Dail, have reached them. The real donors of those dollars, as of other terrorist funds, have a greater loyalty to the Swastika than the Stars and Stripes. What the real strength of the I.R.A. now is, different opinions are held in Ireland. Mr. Boland said it was not numerous. The chief danger is that a secret society may gain some support by spurious claims to patriotism. AMERICA IN FAR EAST Discussing American policy in tho Far East, Sir. Erwin D. Canham, a noted American correspondent, writes from Washington as follows: —Intensive negotiations are now going on in Tokio, with British, Russian and American diplomats doing their best to impress and conciliate Japanese policy. The United States Government is discouraged and uncertain about the outlook. It has put its navy in an advanced position in the Pacific —without commitment; it has had its Ambassador lecture Japan severely, at the same time pointing out the economic advantages of keeping on good terms with this country; it threatens to impose economic penalties after January, 1910. But the United States is not yet ready to shoulder the full responsibility of resisting Japan's consolidation of its gains in China, and perhaps also be forced to make some kind of stand against Russia there. As so often of late, Asiatic policy comes down to making the best of a bad business. The American Government hopes that Britain and Trance will not deem it necessary to make many concessions to Japan, but will hold to the rearguard action of recent years, waiting and hoping for better times. In case Britain and France do enter an Asiatic Munich, the United States will face a bitter horizon. What can it do, alone, to halt Japan? Can it be certain that Japan will stop Russia? Is there any chance of saving China?

BRITISH WOMEN'S LAND ARMY If you can rise before the sun of an English winter's morning, if you can face into a keen wind blowing over fields ploughed and barren, if you can take a delight in the deep wet ruts of country lanes and feel friendly—really friendly—toward a recalcitrant motortractor which, sullen and cold after a night's stand, refuses to start, then you are a Land Girl born—no mistake about it, writes Miss Phyllis M. Lovell. And Great Britain wants Land Girls. In Great Britain a ploughing campaign is in progress, because there is a stern need for securing of food supplies. Coupled with this, there is the likelihood that, as months pass, more and more men will be called to the colours. So Great Britain is turning for land work to its women, and out of the towns are coming recruits who, all unused to the ways of the countryside, are yet willing, to "do their bit." Thirty thousand women, mostly from the towns and cities, have volunteered for the Women's Land Army. Some 28,000 of them have gone or are now in process of going through the short war training that is provided free by the British Government. Slowly but surely they are being absorbed into the work of . farms all up and down the country. There are no pretensions about the job. Nobody claims that a training of four weeks' duration is going to turn a shorthand-typist into a farmer, or even into a qualified farm labourer. But the Women's Land Army is not intended for ordinary peace-time. It is a thing of emergency. WEIGHING THE CHANCES

Germany probably possesses enough of such staple foodstuffs as grain, potatoes, and sugar to ward off actual starvation and to hold out, on a spartan diet, for some years, writes the eminent American foreign correspondent Mr. William Henry Chamberlain in assessing the relative strengths of the Entente and Germany. What is more doubtful is Germany's ability to match France and Great Britain in essential raw materials. The probabilities point to a wearing down of Germany in a war of attrition, in the event that the stalemate of the first months of the war should be prolonged indefinitely. But it is quite probablo that Germany, after having staked so much on rearmament, will not wait passively while British and French strength grows. Once convinced that there is no chance of a peace which would permit the absorption of its eastern conquests, the Third Reich may lot loose a terrific air offensive against British docks, industrial centres, and large cities. No one knows, until it happens, what would be the net result of such an offensive, and of the retaliation which would follow against German military and industrial objectives. But some neutral military observers believe that Germany at the present time can give more than it will get in aerial destruction. One may say, therefore, that Germany has the greater chance of delivering spectacular, heavy blows during the first months, perhaps during the first year of the war. After this time the potential Anglo-French superiority in material ought to begin to yield results. , I