END OF WAR?

Waikato Independent, Volume XLIII, Issue 3949, 31 January 1944, Page 3

END OF WAR?

INTERESTING SPECULATIONS

WISHFUL THINKING

(By the "Town Crier")

There is a good deal of wishful thinking going on these days with regard to when will end. It is, of course, quite good that a hopeful spirit should pervade the "corporate" mind, for how else should we be able to face the seemingly interminable years of waiting for the return of our loved ones?

Now and again there are fprccasts which must be treated seriously. What the average man-in-the-street thinks about it, is almost sure to be wrong, but what prominent politicians and Statesmanmen who are closely in touch with European affairs think, is worthy of sqrious attention. Harold Nicholson, M.P., is such a one. He can almost be said to have his finger on Hitler's pulse. He is, withal, one of the most attractive figures in the House of Commons. His weekly column in the "Spectator" has become a national institution, and all that is contained there is conspicuous for literary merit and political insight.

Swedish Opinion.

In. the "Spectator" of November 12, 1943, he reports having been delayed in Sweden owing to difficulties with-; air transport.:. While m Stockholm he was struck .by the dazzling lights and the normal tone and appearance of city life. Here was a country within earshot of war, and living, as it were, on the edge of a cauldron, yet carrying on 'jn a normal and peaceful way, and endeavouring to treat all belligerents with equal justice. Mr Nicholson, while there, was able to see the peaceful and orderly exchange of British and German prisoners of war in the harbour of Gothenburg, and he was impressed by the calm and business-like way in which the exchange was effected. Efficiency seemed to him to be the hall mark of Swedish life, and a great deal of real humanity is being expressed through the gratuitious' services that she is now rendering to the nations at war. Mr Nicholson does not think that either America or Britain is sufficiently aware of this, and an absence of gratitude he says, "has thrown the Swedes back upon themselves."

Early End of War?

"They look for an early peace with a longing no less than ours" he says, "and with an optimism which fills an English visitor with astonishment." We are being prepared for many weary months of unprecedented struggle, and being told to steel ourselves for whatever may occur when the long-talked-of "second front" is established. The Swedes, on the other hand, "do not share this gloomy anticipation/' Many of them have visited and revisited Germany during recent months, and they know, first hand, the state of the German mind at this time. They report wholesale corruption in the Nazi .Civil Service which compares very unfavourably with the traditional pre-war honesty in the conduct of public affairs. They report, further, that the German people are rapidly losing faith in their leaders. Whenever these Swedes hear an Englishman give expression to a gloomy viewpoint with regard to the possible duration of the war, they smile and say. "you do not know the condition of Germain- to-day." All this is very cheering. Towers Of Elisnore. "The town of Helsinborg." where Mr Nicholson spent the few days he was in Sweden, ''looks out across the sound to where the historic towers of Elsinore glisten in the sun," and in the cemetery above the town are to be seen the graves of seven British airmen, with "Died for his country," neatly painted on seven white crosses. Summing up his brief impressions/he says, "I felt glad we were fighting this war. I felt glad that Sweden wasn't."