THE COMMON ROUND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24630, 11 June 1941, Page 3

THE COMMON ROUND

By Wayfarer

We are suitably impressed by the pious spirit that animated the New Zealand soldier who has described a day in the army in hymn-time. Our informant declares that his parents received the following schedule: 6 a.m., Reveille, " Christians Awake." _ 6.45, Rouse parade, 'Art Thou Weary, Art Thou Languid?" 7 a.m.. " Meekly Wait and Murmur Not." „ _, 8.45, Manoeuvres, "Fight the Good Fight." . _ 9.30, Company orders, " Oft in Danger, Oft in Woe." 10.30. Kit inspection, "All Things Bright and Beautiful." 11.45, Swedish drill, "Here We Suffer Grief and Pain." I p.m., Dinner. " Come. Ye Thankful People, Come." 2.15, Rifle drill, " Go Labour On." 3.15, Lecture by officer, "Tell Me the Old, Old Story." 4.30, Dismiss, "Praise God from Whom. All Blessings Flow." 5 p.m., Tea, "What Means This Eager. Anxious Throng? " 6 p.m., Free for night, "Oh, Lord, How Happy We Shall Be." 6.30, Out of bounds, "We Do Not Know, We Cannot Tell." 7 p.m.. Route march. "Onward, Christian Soldiers." 9.45, Air raid drill, "We Plough the Fields and Scatter." 10 p.m., Last Post, "All Safely Gathered In." 10.30, Lights out "Peace. Perfect PfiSC6 II p.m.. Night manoeuvres, "The Day Thou Gavest Lord is Ended." 11.30, Guard inspection, " Sleep On, Beloved."

Hymns, in truth, have always had their part in war, and most often one more heroic even than rousing Christian soldiers from their slumberous bunks. Those who have read the elegant records of Mr Woolcott entitled "While Rome Burns" (and those who have not have missed something or other) may recall another and, one might say, corrupt use of the same. Private MacArthur, Charles Gordon of that ilk, playwright and playboy, when assigned by his colonel to select a song for the United States 149th field artillery in Flanders, reacted according to whimsy. "Some say," Mr Woollcott observes primly, "that never while they live will they forget the expression on the face of the Y.M.C.A. secretary when he first heard the result, the troops slogging down the Lorraine wood, gaunt, foul, hairy, verminous, but all lifting their hoarse voices in the refrain, 'Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam.'"

We would not wish to rob Mr Hitler (or Mr Stalin it may have been) of whatever might be due in acknowledgment of his thoughtfulness in introducing parachute troops to modern warfare. The island of Crete is Jjecome the more cretinous as a result of this enterprise, and the early fantasies of Mr H. G. Wells are growing less fictitious every day. Not these gentlemen or suchlike, but another of non-European celebrity seems to have had the idea first. From an American source:

Benjamin Franklin, in 1784. said he thought a nation with 5000 balloons, each capable of carrying two men over an enemy's lines, would be hard to beat. He also observed that this might discourage nations from war, since it will be impracticable for the .most potent of them to guard "his dominations!" ■

He was, like" most prophets, both right and wrong. Aircraft and parachutists have made frontiers violable. They have failed to break the " dominations " of the British people over their rugged little kingdom. Indeed, Julius Caesar, invading with some eighty transports and a squadron of galleys—which could by no means be described as a brilliantly original method of reaching an island-—was rather more effective than Herr Hitler with all the resources of modern ingenuity at his disposal. But one Nazi has so far brought to fruition his invasion plan, and the flight of Herr Hess was, in the words of the poet, just a personal success. Other "firsts" in the use of new weapons of war, as collected by a contributor to the New Yorker magazine: Screaming bombs: Centuries ago, Chinese warriors used darts with tips drilled in such a way that they would whistle in flight and frighten the foe. Poison gas: In 1410, while besieging Calais, the Duke of Burgundy ordered his men to fill some barrels with decayed toads and hurl them into the city. Pamphlet raids: In 1792 a Frenchman invented a mechanism for releasing circulars from balloons which was used by his Government "to spread the truth df French prosperity among foreign rivals." Air raids: Austrians attacking Venice in 1848 rigged up balloons with 201 b bombs (and time fuses for releasing them) and succeeded in landing three of the missiles on the Piazza di San Marco. There is not so much that is new in the war news, after all—not even in the New Order. Tyrants have arisen, and have been run to earth, during aeons of our painful old story.