THEORY AND PRACTICE

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21051, 1 March 1940, Page 6

THEORY AND PRACTICE

While Viscount Halifax was telling a gathering of people at Oxford University that “we have no choice but to resist and defeat by force the attack to which our ideals are exposed,” Mr Winston Churchill was telling the House of Commons how Britain was attacking and defeating the enemy force. Mr Churchill’s confidence is undiminished. Declaring that German submarines had been driven under water and were afraid to use their guns, he added ; “I feel entitled today to say that we see our way to mastering the magnetic mine and other variants of the same idea. How this has been achieved is a detective story written in a language of its own.” Emphasising the extent of the sea campaign, Mr Churchill disclosed that this year Britain expected to have 250,000 men to man mine-sweeping vessels. In a-1 the circumstances the First Lord of the Admiralty was able to give a very satisfactory account of the Navy’s answer to the Nazi challenge and to indicate that the Navy was still rapidly gathering strength. Since the German airmen had refused to show any mercy to even unarmed fishing vessels, Britain was arming the fishing fleets with thousands of guns. In the months to come German planes which formerly preyed on helpless victims will not escape unscathed. German/ is in fact by her ruthless methods merely making a rod for her own back. Because they have violated every convention that formerly introduced a little chivalry even into war, Germans cannot complain at Mr Churchill’s statement “that in our interpretation of the rules and conventions affecting neutrals, humanity rather than legal pedantry must be our guide.” Viscount Halifax measured the extent of the Nazi menace when he contrasted British youth with the younger generation in Germany. He affirmed that hundreds of thousands of young Germans were willing to sacrifice their lives for the Nazi cause, which emphasises that Nazi propaganda is a subtle poison that effectively enslaves its victims. Since they have been permitted to know no other way of life, and because they have been made to believe that they must fight the world to gain their rights, this young generation of Germans is a dangerous and a sinister influence on the future of the world. To change that fanatical belief there has to be a tremendous upheaval and awakening in the German nation. The contrast in the mental outlook of German and of British youth is indeed startling and tiagic.