A TIE WITH BERLIN.

Western Star, 2 October 1936, Page 3

A TIE WITH BERLIN.

lAN HAMILTON’S PLEA. “For Heaven’s sake make friends with Berlin,” pleaded General Sir lan Hamilton when speaking at a Derbyshire untish Legion raily at Cliatsworth Park (reports the ‘Manchester Guardian’). He referred to men “on the verge of stampeding into gas masks,” and said: “When the girls in the streets do the same, then Cupid will go off the deep end and uo pink fingernails or powder puffs will' revive him.” Making his plea for friendship with Germany, he said: “Why people who are so easily frightened should question a firm offer of a 25year peace, instead of taking the peace first and asking the questions afterwards, reminds me of some generals who are, of course, brave as lions but always manage to put off the battle till next day, when their men will be rested. They forget that the enemy will probably not be resting. “In tho case of Germany we have rested our men too long; the auctioneer s hammer has fallen, but it is to another bidder. So now, wherever we turn, the clouds are gathering, the lightning flickers, and we hear the muttering of the coming storm.

PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE. “As an old soldier who has studied storms, let me put a pinch of practical knowledge into the orations of those whom. we hear comparing quite complacently the number of our aeroplanes and airships with those of foreign. nations, as if that was all there is to it. “The effect of ‘fire’ is measurable by two main factors—the accuracy of the aim and the size of the bull s-eye. France and Paris, Germany and Berlin, are more or less like ordinary targets made up of ‘bull’s-eyes,’ ‘inners, magpies,’ and very largo ‘outers.’ In Great Britain and London the ‘inner’ and magpie’ are merged into one huge ‘bull seye’ sitting in the middle of an outei speckled with half a dozen, negligible spots. “So remember that as between aeioplanes the target is one-half of the battle, and in any case that, if it comes to mutual wiping out of capitals, Berlin is a poor exchange for London. “Therefore, if now at the eleventh hour there is still time, for Heaven’s sake make friends with Berlin,” Londoners were shivering in their shoes already, lie added, largely at the horrible phantoms their own prophets raised up for them out of the printing presses. There was Low, the inimitable cartoonist; and there was Winston Churchill, who would have been a Defence Minister, only timid wait-and-see Characters are afraid ho might do something. He built, painted, and farmed—“a week ago I started him on a cow,” Sir lan remark, ed. Those two were frightening (lie men in the streets of Lonodn,