The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 6

6 THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1939 the air and caused many civilian casualties. COURT PERSONAL1 OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENCE A. R. P. exposition of the new system of administration is called for at once.

Confidence in and understanding of it from the beginning are vital. structive and imaginative statesmanship. But it is only by war, alas at this hour that we can obtain for the world the opportunity for statesmanship. If Hitler overruns Europe, the constructive task will fall to him, and we have only to look at Germany, Austria, and Czecho-Slovakia to see what he will make of it To-day wc have to exert the whole strength of the British people to avert that catastrophe. Democracy, said Fox, gives a power of which no other form of government is capable.

That power and the intense passion with which men love liberty are our chief hope and comfort as we enter on the night which begins to darken upon the world. By PRIVATE WIRE sible at night now for a slightly shortsighted man to go about without trouble if he cannot use the point of his torch on the ground. Policemen and A.RP. officials seem to have quite different views on this. Regarding the use of buses, everyone has to memorise bus numbers now, for destinations are difficult to discern.

Evening services in the churches are now earlier, some at half-past six being brought forward to six, and to-day some evening services were as early as half-past three. A parson at a London service to-day said: "I want you always to remember when there is an air warning that you can take your choice whether you stay or not through the service, but if you do you must stand against the wall." In the northern district there is a large number of aliens, mainly refugees, so there have been crowds at the town halls of the district for gas masks. The officials are telling them that they have been on duty for the last fortnight waiting for people wanting masks and hardly any came. At ana Haddington this weekend there have been lively scenes with Irish people going home. Over nve tnousand were carried on the Irish mail at Euston, which was run in five sections on Saturday, and at Paddinston there were three trains for Fishguard.

Many were mothers and children. The people here who have been most suddenly hit are the theatrical profession and artists who seem to see then- livelihoods disappearing. They should recall that in- the last war everything seemed just as black or blacker, but in the end both professions regained and increased their place in the national life. What's Your Job? In the last few weeks American observers have particularly noticed when they went into a shop how customers and shop assistants were always asking one another, "What's your job?" The assumption was that everyone has some war job or other to go to. That may be so in the lower ranks, but the experience of most of us who have to do with men of big reputation in the business world shows that at present many of London's brightest brains who have been offering themselves for months past have not yet been called upon for the efforts that they are able to make.

Nothing has, been so impressive in our national concentration for the war as the fact that there are so many first-rate men left over for its second stage. The reservoir that is awaiting this time is great and that is not because (as at the beginning of the last war) there were so many misfits, but because under modern conditions so many men have emerged with the gifts and experience for handling big organisations. Cancelling Out the Theatres In this war there are to be no Bing Boys" and Chu-Chin-Chows to cheer the dark nights in London. A brave ittle surviving list of advertisements this morning declared that Mr. Hulbert and Miss Courtneidge proposed to go on enlivening us in their musical comedy at the Palace.

Mr. Emlyn Williams, too, proposed to carry on at the Duchess with "The Corn is Green," Dame Sybil Thorndike still valiantly in support. War or no war The Women at the Lyric declared that they would continue with their witty bickering, and "Me and My Girl" at the Victoria Palace shouted a defiant Oi at the very notion of closing down. Miss Braithwaite, too, hoped to go on drawing the town in Tony Draws a Horse," and Mr. Atkins in his open-air Shakespeare, and Mr.

Farjeon in his brilliant revue at the Little Theatre, which was occupied by troops throughout the last war. But all this brave attempt at keeping up the national pecker now goes for nothing because of an order to-day which peremptorily closes all theatres and cinemas until we have learned what ultra-modern air raids can be like. DECLARATION Our Warsaw Correspondent reports allegations that the Germans dropped gas bombs during air raids on four Polish towns. 17) The French Senate and Chamber met on SaturHav ts, u.o aV.LUUUb Ul events by M. Daladier.

(9) Turkey has given an assurance that she stands by Britain and France. (10) Eleven smaller European States have declared their neutrality. (9) President Roosevelt, broadcasting to the nation last night, said "America will remain a neutral nation." (9) AT WAR We are now at war and there is no further room for argument. Quiet living has ended we are plunged into a new world of desperate hopes and fears. Yet for the last act none of us can have any regrets.

There was no other way. Conciliation was open to the end. Hitler would have none of it. The British Government held its hand for a day and a half after its warning. The French Government gave even longer time for a final gesture from Germany.

Italy played a part (not yet known in detail) in trying to secure a cessation of hostilities. It was all to no effect The German Government let the sands run out. It had counted the risks and it took them. It deliberately chose to bring calamity on Europe. And now the darkness of war falls on us, broken onlv by occasional flashes of vital news, a darkness in which our part is to work with patience, trust, and energy.

Nothing can give us more confidence than the manner in which in these last days Parliament has represented the spirit of the people. It has been the great justification of the democratic principle and of the liberty and freedom for which we have taken up arms. The Prime Minister played his sad part with high dignity and restraint responsibility tied him. But through the Opposition leaders the eager spirit of the nation was able to find less fettered expression. The Commons did credit to their history by their passionate demand that there should be no shadow of vacillation in our policy.

There was none, of course, but it was well that the magnificent unity of the British people should be so clearly demon strated. It was the same with all he war legislation conscription and the rest which Parliament put through with such speed. The thing has to be seen through. Many of us might have liked to see this unity translated at once into the personnel of the Government. Evidently that stage has not yet come, and we may fully acknowledge that there are good arguments for the course that the Labour and Liberal parties are taking.

They do not shirk responsibility, and it may well be that for some time at least they can be of better service as a co-operating but none the less critical Opposition than as parts of a single machine. Mr. Greenwood, in whom Labour has had a leader in this crisis of whom it and the country may be proud, put it well when he said that so long as the relentless purpose is pursued with vigour, with foresight, and with determination by the Government, so long there will be a united nation. But should there be confused counsels, inefficiency, and wavering, then other men must be called to take their share. Labour and Liberal do not refuse service, and, after the experience of the last war, we cannot doubt that ultimately they will assume a more active part in the direction of affairs.

Meanwhile Mr. Chamberlain's reconstructed Government must have its chance. It has the merit of bringing in three new men who will greatly strengthen it Mr. Churchill (at the Admiralty), Lord Hankey (without portfolio), and Mr. Eden (at the Dominions).

But as we found in the last war, the key to success is the War Cabinet. Mr. Chamberlain has not adopted the plan introduced by Mr. Lloyd George in 1916 of a War Cabinet of five or six without departmental interests, giving its whole time to direction and co-ordination. His War Cabinet is more like the War Committee of the Asquith Govern ment.

It consists of the Prime Minister, the Chancellor, the Foreign Secretary, the four defence Ministers, with two unattached Ministers Lord Hankey (the secretary of the first War Cabinet) and Sir Samuel Hoare. Until the mechanism is explained there must be some doubt as to how this rather large body is to work and what its relations with the rest of the Administration will be. It will plainly not be the purely executive body of 1917-18. It also appears deficient on the side of internal and economic affairs. With important problems of labour and man-power ahead it seems curious that National Service, Supply, Trade, and Civil Defence should be eiven no direct place.

An COURT CIRCULAR Buckingham Palace, September 2. 1939. The King held a Council this evening at seven clocK. mere were present ins Viscount Runciman of Doxford (Lord President), the- Right Hon. Malcolm MacDonald, M.P.

(Secretary of State for the Colonies). Captain the Right Hon. Euan Wallace. M.P. (Minister of Transport), and the Right Hon.

W. S. Morrison, M.P. (Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster). Sir Rupert Howorth was in attendance as Clerk of the Council.

The Viscount Runci man of Doxford had an audience of his Majesty previous to the Council. Colonel the Earl Fortescue (Lord-in-Waiting), the Master of the Household, and Commander Harold Campbell. R.N. (Equerry-in-Wait-ing), were in attendance. The Queen, attended by the Lady Helen Graham, visited the Westminster A.R.P.

control centre, wardens' posts, and a major casualty post this afternoon. PRIME MINISTER SEES THE KINO The Prime Minister drove to Buckingham Palace and saw the King at seven o'clock last evening. This was his first audience with the King since the declaration of war. The Prime Minister remained with the King for three-quarters of an hour. Immediately afterwards the King gave audience to Mr.

Hore-Belisha, Secretary for War. THE DUKE OF KENT The Admiralty announces that Rear Admiral the Duke of Kent has taken up his war appointment THE QUEEN AMONG A.R.P. WORKERS The Queen made a tour of Westminster A.R.P. stations on Saturday and talked with the workers. At the report and control centre she was received by the Mayor and Town Clerk ot Westminster.

In the operations room, where she inspected a number of maps, she talked with telephone girls, ws well as with the young messenger boys, whom she con gratulated on their smartness and intelligence. Afterwards the Queen visited a warden's post, a first-aid post, a casualty post, and an air-raid shelter. The Queen saw the minor casualty posts at an evacuated hospital, sandbagging operations at flats and vaults under pavements. These vaults, which are approached from the basements of the houses, were formerly used for coal storage. She saw workmen knocking down the dividing walls, so that the vaults now run the whole street length and form excellent shelters.

To Sir John Whitty, chief warden ot Westminster, she said Everybody deserves the highest praise for the steps that have been taken." When Major Andrew, wardens' organiser, told her of the rapidity with which Westminster's services had been mobilised, the Queen said, "The spirit of the people of this country is most heartening." DUKE AND DUCHESS OF KENT The Duke and Duchess of Kent dined with the King and Queen at Buckingham Palace on Saturday night. Miss Gracie Fields has returned from Capri to her home at Peacehaven. The London Metal Exchange announces that it will probably hold a meeting every Thursday from noon to 3 p.m. at Northwick Park Hall. Kenton, near Harrow.

Lord Halifax, the Foreign Secretary, and Sir Alexander Cadogan. Permanent Under Secretary at the Foreign Office, who usually walk to the Foreign Office each morning, have received special permission from the King to walk through the gardens of Buckingham Palace on their way to the Department. LONDON IN WAR DARKNESS Buses' Example From our London Staff Fleet Street, Sunday. London's first night of war was one of stars and a moon more than half-full. In the circumstances it was difficult to judge the efficacy of the black-out, for the darkness was never as impenetrable as it had been during the two previous nights.

Nevertheless those who went out of lighted houses into the street were completely blinded for the. first few minutes, and were lost in admiration of the way in which the bus-drivers managed to keep up a good speed. The buses themselves are among the best examples of successful blacking-out, and were less visible to-night than many private cars driving only with sidelights. The darkening of houses seemed almost complete. The fault was generally a thin line of light at the top of a blind, or at the sides when a window had been left open and the wind was causing the blind to bulge away from the wall.

Among the rare offenders one noticed one or two Government offices, and an occasional restaurant, though its entrance was darkened, showed a light from farther inside. At least one restaurant commissionaire was stultifying the black-out by shining a torch for every client who came through his door. The restaurant itself was as full as it-generally is on a Sunday, but only two of the people in it Were carrying their gas masks. Several bad parked their masks in the cloakroom, and one-visualised a pretty scramble for them if the alarm had been sounded. Piccadilly Circus, Piccadilly, and the West End generally were astonishingly dark until the moon rose, and' the tiny crosses left visible on the traffic lights shone more brilliantly than one would have believed possible.

There' were not many people about, and the pavement outside Buckingham Palace was deserted. In Whitehall only a few people groped their way about, and 'in general it looked as if the Londoner had decided to go home and listen to the wireless rather than walk about the streets oh the off chance of seeing something It. was an unemotional end to a remarkably restrained day. FIRE APPLIANCES BAXENDALES Miller Street EVACUATION Readers of the "Manchester Guardian whose duties take them into the Reception Areas can be sure of getting the paper, and will assist the Publisher to adjust supplies, by placing an order with the nearest newsagent. Any difficulty experienced in obtaining the Manchester Guardian" will be dealt with promptly if it is communicated to the Circulation Manager, THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN Guardian Building, Manchester 2 OXFORD LOCAL EXAMINATIONS We shall publish to-morrow a list of Northern schools' successes in the Oxford Local Examinations, held in July, for Higher School Certificates and School Certificates.

THE GUARDIAN MANCHESTER, MONDAY, September 4, 1939 TO-DAY'S PAPER SPECIAL ARTICLES The Gift Book 12 The New War Cabinet: Mr. Churchill's Post 7 Mr. Eden's Return to the Government 7 Parliamentary Sketch 7 Warm, Light, and Becoming 4 ILLUSTRATIONS Manchester People in Piccadilly Gardens 6 Salford Policeman and AJt.P. Workers 6 London Taxi With Fire-tender 5 Evacuation Scenes 5 The Queen and London A.R.P. Workers 5 Evacuation of Manchester Railway Horses 6 Palace Guards in Steel Helmets 5 CORRESPONDENCE Christians and War (Archbishop of York) 12 HOME Britain and France are now at war with Germany.

The British ultimatum expired at 11 a.m. yesterday, and the French entered the war at 5 p.m. (7) The King last night broadcast a message to the Empire in which he called to all his peoples to stand calm, firm, and united. -(7) Mr. Chamberlain at the end of his speech in the Commons said he hoped to live long enough to see the successful end of this war against Hitlerism.

(7 3) A War Cabinet has been constituted. Mr. Winston Churchill will be First Lord of the Admiralty and Lord Hankey. formerly Secretary to the Cabinet, is appointed a member without portfolio. (7) In a statement in the House of Commons on Saturday evening the Prime Minister said that Italy had suggested a five-Power conference.

He added that it would be impossible lor Britain to take part in such a conference while Poland was being subjected to invasion. (3) Mr. Eden rejoins the Government as Dominions Secretary, with special access to the Cabinet. Sir J. Anderson becomes Home Secretary and Minister of Home Security.

He will continue to be in charge of A.R.P. (7) The Labour and Liberal Oppositions have decided against entering the Government. (8) A statement on enlistment under the Armed Forces Bill was made in the House of Commons on Saturday. (3) Mr. De Valera announced in the Dail on Saturday that Eire would endeavour to maintain neutrality as long as possible.

(10) A notice to aliens has been issued by the Chief Constable of Lancashire. (12) Speeches were broadcast by Mr. Greenwood and Sir A. Sinclair last night. (12) A number of financial measures were announced yesterday.

All banks will be closed to-day, but there will be no general moratorium as during the last war. A regulation issued requires everyone to offer through their bankers for sale to the Treasury any gold coin or bullion or foreign exchange at their disposal. (10) Lord Gort. V.C., has been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in the Field. (7) The Trades Union Congress will, after all, open at Bridlington this morning.

(12) Assurances of help In the war are being received from many parts of the Empire. (7) The Thetis was beached in Moelfre Bay, on the Anglesey coast, at high tide yesterday afternoon. (4) Evacuation from Manchester was almost complete by last night Some 95,000 persons 72,000 of them children had been sent away from the city. (8) American cotton in Liverpool on Saturday wa- 26 points dearer, middling being quoted at 5.97L Futures were 23 to 3 points higher. Spot cotton in New York wa 5 points lower with middling at' 8.87c.

and futures were 11 to 24 points lower. (11) FOREIGN Herr Hitler, appealing to the German people for unity, says "Germany shall not again capitulate." (9) The German armies yesterday continued their efforts to cut off the Polish Corridor'' and with it the coast, from the rest of Poland. In Silesia they Bohumin, a railway junction, and the historic Foiisn town 01 uzesiocnowa, which was set on fire by air attacks. (7) In the "first three days of the war the Germans attacked many Polish towns and villages not in the war zone from LONDON, Sunday Night The Decision Last night after the thunderstorm had burst over London people went to a troubled sleep. The decision for which the nation waited came with the morning as steel bright and clear.

Once more Britain had taken up arms, this time with no break the Government or in the country. The most heartening thing of all on this day of history was that, apart from pacifists in principle, one heard no man question this decision for war. Last time when we entered war there was confusion after the decision was taken this time confusion came before it and then disappeared. It was remarkable, too, to see how the war since its start against Poland is spoken ot as "Hitler's war," the almost maniacal egoism of his speech on Friday and of his correspondence having dented itself on the public mind much more than the Kaiser did in 1914. Afternoon Impressions The morning's emotional excitement seemed to have almost dis appeared here by six o'clock or so in the afternoon.

Walking round Westminster one saw a London which had already adapted itself to the thought of war. There were handfuls of people standing outside Downing Street and Wellington Barracks, but none outside Buckingham Palace or the War Office. The proportion of people carrying gas masks had at least doubled since before lunch. The morning's long queue of would-be recruits at least sixty yards long outside the Air Ministry in Kingsway, and the shorter ones for the Army and Navy in Whitehall, had disappeared. People were not standing, but walking from point to point, and a good many of them were audibly disappointed that there was not more to see.

There were not many more than on a normal Sunday, and the seller of a Sunday newspaper in Whitehall which had published a special edition with the names of the War Cabinet was doing little business. ine policemen in steel helmets, carrying gas masks, who had seemed self-conscious yesterday, were wearing them to-day as if they had never worn anything else. One notices that the sentries outside Buckingham Palace, who were in scarlet two days ago, were in khaki with steel helmets and gas masks to-day, breaking the old harmony between their uniforms and the scarlet tulips, geraniums, and gladioli that succeed each other in the flower-beds opposite the Palace. Calmness and Purpose There was a bitter incongruity in the notices outside Westminster Abbey inviting us to take part in the continuous intercession for inter national peace" at the tomb of the Unknown Warrior, but a constant, though slender, stream of people passed in to spend a few moments there, and at least half of them were young. Outside one saw every variety of uniform in the stream of cars that swept steadily by.

There was a purposefulness about almost every car-load which marked it as a unit of a vast system already working. One saw only one car of obvious sightseers, and it carried a Michigan number-plate. had bothered to go near the German Embassy, which stood window-blinded and deserted but for a car outside the door, a couple of policemen, and a caretaker in his off- duty coat. It would have seemed utterly out of keeping with the calm purposefulness of the public mood if anybody had troubled to revile Hitler's representative, for this has been a day of utter self-possession. Amid all the coming and going there have been people in the parks talking, making love, or merely resting in the sunshine according to the routine of peace.

One small impression was that of the brand-new medal ribbons on the uniforms which are now becoming more common. items People want a ruling about the use of torches in the streets. It is impos SCENES AT THE Downing Street From our Fleet Street, Sunday. If the great mass of Londoners who listened at ten o'clock this morning to the broadcast announcement of the fateful events to take place an hour later had wanted to be in Whitehall at the moment they could hardly have got there in time. It was obvious that the great majority would obey the injunction to stand by for the news at 11 15, but one was astonished to find that there were no people waiting by Palace Yard and very few between there and Trafalgar Square.

Even in Downing Street the crowd was only of average size. It was largely composed of people who could not remember the last war and had never heard an air-raid warning. Everyone was watching for signs- and portents, but onlv one or two standing oooosite No. 10 caught the first hint. Looking up at the root just ten minutes before the time-limit expired they saw a' black curtain being tacked inside an attic window.

At eleven o'cIock Lord Halifax and Sir Alexander Cadogan went into No. 10. A few minutes later a group of pressmen were admitted, but did not remain long. The crowd in the street surged forward, expecting the Prime Minister to emerge when he had broadcast his message, but was soon sent back to the pavement. A group of people ran iiito the quadrangle of the Foreign Office to listen to the message broadcast from one of a fleet of cars.

Only a few minutes seemed to pass before the quiet of the street was broken by the siren signal. The general, rapid impression was that the crowd which so quickly swept itseii away before the unfiurried policemen was as cool-headed- as 11 it were well accustomed to take cover. Soon most of it eame back to stand and watch in Down ing Street. Calm Warning The British People and the War The British people have never been so united in accepting a challenge as they are to-day in determining to resist the tyranny with which all free peoples are threatened. Never indeed have safety and honour been so indissolubly linked together.

It has at times been argued that the British Empire could stand aloof from the Continent of Europe, nursing its strength and pursuing its own special interests in the world; The hard facts have destroyed this illusion. While Great Britain was still an island her statesmen and strategists held that the preservation of the integrity and independence of the Low 'Countries was vital to her safety. It is true that at the Peace of Amiens Great Britain was obliged to leave France in possession of Belgium, but that very fact stamped the peace with the character of a truce. The great historian Sorel pointed out that the neutralisation of Belgium was really essential to peace in Western Europe. But once it was granted that Great Britain would be in danger if the Low Countries passed under the control of powerful and ambitious Governments, it became clear that Britain's interest in the state of the Continent went far beyond this.

Any State that threatened to become the master of the Continent threatened Great Britain, for, on the narrowest view, it was of supreme importance to her what happened in the Low Countries. The isolation school was therefore on weak ground even in the days, those days to which we look wistfully back to-day, when we were still an island on the edge of a continent and not part of that continent itself. To-day we are no longer an island. It is easier for Germany's airmen to attack us than it is for our airmen to attack Germany. The case for isolation thus breaks down if we are merely looking to our safety.

But of course the question is much larger than this. The future of the world is. at stake, and for one 01 me great leading Powers of Europe to leave the world to its fate would be an act of abdication deadly to its good name and to its snirit and its character. Particularly would this be true of Great Britain. For there is no nation that has gained so much in wealth, in power, in reputation, and in the experience on which political wisdom is nurtured from contact with other peoples and other continents.

Can you say of a people that has spread its name and its institutions all over the globe, that has brought across every sea the treasures of distant lands, that has used its power in three continents to guide the destinies of strange peoples, that has built up its economic strength by riches gained in many cases by the lawless methods of the lawless centuries can you say of such a people that it owes nothing to mankind and that its only duties are to itself? If we had accepted Hitler's invitation to share power with him and leave him to make Eastern Europe his vassal, we should have Deirayea every moral principle in politics. (Very soon, too, we should have found ourselves the junior partner in that concern unless we were ready to concentrate our whole life, in the Nazi spirit, on developing our military strength.) Only a few months ago we were proclaiming that the defence of the League of Nations was our first principle in politics. If we had accepted Hitler's invitation we should have been guilty of one of the most cynical treasons in history. Few people who have lived through the last two years can be in any doubt of the importance of the issue. Europe and the world cannot live and develop their ideas, their capacities, and their virtues in the strident and brutal anarchy into which they have been thrown by the gangster methods.

What is to become of religion, of culture, of beauty and happiness, of the merest decencies, of the settled habits and purpose in daily life if men and women are to remain under the shadow of perpetual war, and war infinitely more barbarous than that of the ages we call savage For the most ruthless warfare of all is the warfare that combines the unchecked violence of uncivilised man with the weapons and resources of the civilised, Timurlane, the fourteenth-century Mongol conqueror, boasted like Hitler that he had brought order into a world of confusion. Gibbon's com ment is strangely apposite to the process we can watch to-day. If "some partial disorders, some local "oppressions were healed by the "sword of Timour, the remedy was far more pernicious than the disease. By their rapine, cruelty, and discord "the petty tyrants of Persia might "afflict their subjects, but whole "nations were crushed under the "footsteps of the reformer." This is the process that we have to arrest. And of all the peoples of the world there is not one to whom it is more important that this attack on civilised custom should be overpowered.

Democracy is the basis of bur life and our society. In -fighting the cause of the freedom of Europe we are fighting the cause of freedom in these islands and in all the societies that make up the British Commonwealth. War, it is said, will not solve our problems. That is true. They demand, as we have often said in these columns, con The King' Broadcast There will be no lack of response to the King's exhortation, in th message which he broadcast last night, that the people of this country and the sister States beyond the seas should stand calm and firm anH united in the hour of trial that has been thrust unnn ns Tin people has ever embarked on thp bitter choice of war with cleaner hands and in a m-eatpr mnnrf of fortitude and resolution.

In a sense it is almost fantastic beyond belief that, in the King's own words, "for the second time in the lives of most of us we are at war," that what happened at one hour before midnight on August 4, 1914. should have been repeated at one hour before noon on September 3 only quarter of a century later. But the message of unavoidable and impend ing disaster had been so plainly written by the leaders of the German people during the Dast weeks and months that the feeling now is almost of relief that the suspense is over and the task at hand. The hearts of those who remember two wars go out most of all to the younger ones who have now been forced into this their first. Rememberine what was promised, and vainly, as we ow see, of a safer, wiser, and better world to those who took up the immediate burden of the last war.

there may well seem a grim futility in hopes that fairer fruit should be gathered from the struggle into which this country was yesterday forced. And yet futility is of all things farthest away from this people's mood at the moment. It belongs to the past, and the hard but determined future lies before us. young and old. Force now meets force, but only by force shall law and respect for the rights of others be re-established.

The quarrel is not of our seeking, old or young, but if the doctrines that have fastened it upon Europe be not crushed, as crushed they shall be, there will be no hope or promise for the sons of those who are now thrown into the struggle. German Strategy The German attack upon Poland may be divided roughly into three different fronts or spheres of action. In the north one force advancing eastward from Pomerania and another advancing westward from East Prussia are attempting to cut off the Polish Corridor at its base. This is a serious threat, because if successful it would mean the loss of Gdynia, Poland's only port and naval base, and might endanger part of the Polish army. A German communique states that a junction "has nearly been made," but that is denied by the Poles and is not borne out by the German reports themselves.

It should be remembered that where the attack is being made the Corridor is nearly 60 miles wide. In the central area another. German force is attacking from the salient caused by the bulge in the German frontier round Breslau. This attack threatens Poland's chief industrial district and would seem to have made some progress at heavy cost. In the south a third German force operating from Slovakia is trying to force the passes through the Carpathians, Poland's only natural line of defence.

This attack, if successful, would also threaten the Polish industrial area. In general the Polish armies seem to be defend ing stoutly and are nowhere in danger of breaking. More serious is the "absolute superiority" in the air claimed by the German High Command. 1 The battle zone is said to "be "completely controlled" by the German Air Force, while a large part of the Polish Air Force is said to have been damaged in raids on Polish aerodromes. This is clearly an exaggeration, but it is inevitable that Poland must be at a disadvantage in this respect.

Fortunately this is one way in which hei allies can give immediate aid. CENTENARY OF HENRY GEORGE The centenary of the birth of Henry George, the land reformer, was celebrated on Saturday by the Yorkshire and Northern land Values League at a meeting held in ffifyr Speakers included men who for fifty years have upheld Henry George' teachings Mr. H. Smtthson. of Halifax.

Mr. Fred Skirrow, of Keifbley, Mr. John Archer, of Huddersfleld, Mr. William Thompson, of Keighley, and Mr. Fred Adams, of Penistone.

Mr. C. H. Smithson said that One reason why the teachings of Henry George were not better known now. was that his writing had been taboo at our universities.

He was nappy to think that the great universities of America were now studying George's books. Every attempt that had been made in this country to introduce the Georgean principles of land taxation had been resisted by vested interests. They who believed those teachings must create' a public opinion that would demand Mistaken Air Raid London Staff The centre of interest shifted to Par liament, and a good many people, but not nearly as many as one would have expected, were waiting at the gates and on tne pavements opposite, reaay to cheer Mr. Chamberlain as his car passed. One had an impression that they were much the same mind as yesterday less perturbed by the out break of war than relieved that the in tolerable period of unrestrained aggres sion was ended.

IN THE ABBEY When the warning went and people in the street were taking cover the service of Holy Communion bad just begun in Westminster Abbey. Over a hundred people had remained for it after the morning service, and not one of them moved. The service went on without interruption, though the worshippers, as a verger said afterwards, "felt it hard that the siren made it difficult to near the prayers." In the Carmelite Church in Church Street. Kensington, the priest was preaching from the text Consider the lilies." At the warning he closed the service, and under the direction of a oriest who at once nut on his A.R.P. helmet the congregation was conducted to a shelter below tne cnurcn.

aa inai not been available the worshippers could have gone to one or other of the shelters close at hand. London, it seems, is well provided with shelters. Bus drivers had been instructed to stop their buses at the sound of a warning. A fair number of people had gone down to gaze at uucKingnam aiace. Mr.

Chamberlain may congratulate himself on having keDt so many thousands of people waiting in their homes to hear ms message. FAt 11 30 a.m. yesterday an aircraft was observed approaching the South Coast As its identity could not be deter mined an air-raid warning was given. It was shortlv afterwards identified as a friendly aircraft, and the all-dear signal was given..