The Ottawa Journal from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada • Page 8

8 The Ottawa Journal Pie Journal PiUahmg Company qfOltaiea. Limtiem. WEDNESDAY MAY 13. 1942. The War at Canada's Door.

Now an enemy submarine has prowled up through the Gulf past the shores of Gaspe to sink a freighter in the St. Lawrence River. Sink it within sight of the church steeples on the river's banks. Some there may be among us who still cling to the delusion, that attack and invasion can't come to this land. Those men who were landed torn this lost vessel in the St.

Lawrence River know better. The truth is that war has surrounded this continent; and this country. Not merely are ships being sunk off our Atlantic coasts, witbm the sigjht of coast dwellers; there is the possibility of attack by sea or air at any time upon our Pacific seaboard. Actually, we have become an island, with war swirling about us, and with our oceans no longer keeping the enemy from us. but "providing him with a bridge by which to bring attack.

in the light of that tru'thl brought home to us 'so starkly yesterday, let us hear less of the foolish blather that we are fighting a war of "imperialism or fighting England's war. We re fighting for ourselves; fighting for Canada and for Canada's survival. Those who hold otherwise, or believe that at most we should stay here in Canada and wait till the enemy comes to us. hold against common sense. Is This Hitler's Big Attack? Too soon it may be yet to say that the heavy lighting in the Crimea is the beginning of Hitler's much heralded Summer offensive; the hurricane" assault which Mr.

Churchill predicted on Sunday would end the "stormy Russian For one thing, we may be sure that Hitler will not risk advertising this attack as an offensive until he is sure of a measure of sjccesr Hitler has come to the stage where he can't risk speaking of an offensive where there is possibility of failure. And thus far. on the balapce of Carman and Russian statements, this attack in the Crimea has failed Beginning with a Berlin claim that it was the "biggest offensive since the Winter defensive" (considerable caution there) it trailed off intoa German admission that the Russians were putting up "fierce resistance" and without a single claim of advance. The Russians on the other hand (and Soviet communiques have been remarkably accurate) say that the German attack was "completely broken and This attack, of course, may have been but a German feint for we need not deny the enemy his skill with the real attack, the big offensive to come somewhere else, and later. At the same time, it is in the Crimea that Hitler must strike at this time if he is to strike with chance of success.

The terrain of the Crimea is now dry; the days are slipping past; and the oil of the Caucasus, for which Hitler will surely strike if he conquers the Crimea, is his desperate need. Much has been written of Hitler's shortage of oil. and-much of it (as'events were to show) more foolish than accurate. At the same time there is bound to come a day. on the mere calculation of oil production within Germany's reach, when Hitler must have more oil or lose the war.

This week Pravda, the Soviet news paper, estimated that on the basis of Russia oil consumption, Germany's reserves of tons of oil must be virtually exhausted, with available supplies of 9,000,000 tons a year insuf ficient for her requirements. Consequently, while this present battle in the Crimea. may not be the beginning of Hitler's Summer onset, the attack in full scale cannot be long delayed. Germany has reached the stage where she cannot stand still: either she goes forward in one desperate last throw1 of the rambler or falls back in admission of defeat. On Passing the Buck.

Now Mr Macdonald, the Navy Minister, has been scolding Canadian municipalities because of the housing shortage. "Many of these he said, "are very poor at helping themselves or their own people. They suggest that everything should be done by Ottawa." And he agreed with Mr. MacNicol, member for Toronto-Davenport, that they are "good at passing the Said the Navy Minister: "Every city comes along and expects the Government to build houses and to provide all sorts of facilities disregarding the amount of prosperity as a result of war orders c' one kind or another. "That seems not to weigh in the balance at all.

The whole thing seems to be to pass everything to some other Government. It is. we think, the other way about. The buck is being passed by the Dominion Government and the municipalities', asjisjlal. are on the receiving end.

It was thus in depression days when relief was a formidable item in official spending. The Dominion and the provinces thrust upon the municipalities a share of the relief bills which all but ruined them, refused to be swayed by any argument. Later the Dominion Government admitted its responsibility in the mattpr by putting into effect a scheme of unemployment insurance. There could be no clearer proposition than that the Dominion government, when it increases temporarily the population of a city by the congregation of war workers as it has done in Ottawa-Bought to assume SOME responsibility for their housing. But Mr.

Macdonald and Col. Ralston and Mr. Ilsley see that Ottawa, for example, has had a three-mill rrdurtion in taxes in three years largely because at last they are getting out from under the relief debt and apparently they think we should, borrow a couple of millions and take UP housing in a large way. When it is pointed out that housing of war workers is a federal matter they say we are passing the buck. That is neither fair nor realistic.

'The Moving Finger Writes Just about now what is usually known as a "long sigh of relief may be heard in the vicinity of any college campus. Next month the same sound will echo round high schools and the playing yards of less exalted sources of education. For. this is examination time, the period when no one who has taken a test knows just where he stands. These are the days when he would gladly exchange a few weeks' vacation for assurance that he will be reasonably content when he finds out where he is The worth of the work done by students in the early part of 1942 is now being nut upon the record.

All writers of papers, all who have answered, laying bare' what they do and do not know, have little to do but wait and hope, the while perhaps expressing opinions not. wholly complimentary concerning some professor who set a particularly tricky quiz or one not indicated by the "required Results are what count and no one concerned can be happy until he has read them. There is something very impressive about their finality. The old Persian's description of a thing quite different fits perfectly "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on; nor all your piety nor wit nor all your tears wash out a word of it." Unless, and in such a situation there can be no more important word unless some professor develops tender heart between now and September and agrees that a penalized student need not take a year over because under stress he forgot to put down what he possibly knew as well as he does the alphabet. Looked back upon, over an interval of years, examinations may not seem such serious affairs.

But at the time of taking, whether junior matric or leading to graduation, they mean a great deal to many a young Canadian to whom education is not fruit to be plucked leisurely from a tree of knowledge, but is something to be paid for with hard effort in some quite different sphere of work. Of late many boys because of the world's turmoil are getting their training in man's work many miles from their Alma Mater. Instead of receiving they are giving. It is no easy curriculum the youth of Canada are now following. They are making history instead of studying it.

They are learning from life, not books. In the Wheelbarrow Days. This is a young country, as countries go, but we get a feeling of maturity when we read, as in an advertisement in The Journal today, that an important Canadian manufacturing company is celebrating its centenary. The Gurney Foundry Company, Limited, was established in Hamilton in 1842, to make heating stoves. Hamilton then was but little more than a village, the railroad was still in the future, and many- Canadian homes used the open hearth for cooking and heating.

Edward Gurney, born in Philadelphia, made good stoves, had them delivered by wheelbarrow around Hamilton, or by wagon in the neighboring counties, taking in exchange grain, lumber, or almost anything of value. His was a -pioneer factory in a pioneer settlement Edward Gurney made such good stoves that presently he had a branch plant in Toronto, a little later moved his main establishment to the larger city, still later had agencies and branches throughout Canada and was doing a great volume of business on a national scale, and the company's products included many types of heating equipment. The present head of the company is Mr. E. Holt Gurney, a grandson of the founder, and employes are numbered by hundreds.

Honesty and efficiency have had their traditional reward. No one can measure the contribution of the Gurney Foundry Company to the health and comfort of Canadians over these hundred years, and its second century opens with its field of usefulness constantly expanding. Notes and Comment. If you ask us. we think the people who have houses near the beautiful Civic Hospital grounds are very lucky.

Maybe all those big fish that fellows are catching up the Gatineau these days are all as big as the fellows "say. Average of 632 patients in Civic Hospital daily in April, with high record of 686 on April 28, illustrates what a' tremendous mercy this great institution is. Conscription is compulsory military service of course. Compulsory military service, says Mr. King to Mr.

Cardin, is not conscription. But Mr. Cardin persists in thinking that there is a nigger in the fence. Indian Congress Leader Nehru says the Japs are angry at "our spirit of The Japs arc probably as angry at the Nehru brand of resistance as a wolf would be at a rabbit 4 Italian war communiques never have been anything but fiction and nobody takes them seriously. German communiques, especially since Hitler took over, personal command, have lied deliberately and consistently.

And now Japan is showing that when it comes to falsification she is as good as the best. J. U. Vincent of Ottawa, is dead. A younger generation knew little of him, but there was a day, more than thirty years ago, when he was something of a political gladiator in this district one who made a difference in the hectic campaigns of those years.

It is through the passing of such men, long out of the headlines, that we realize how much our world has changed. THE 6TTAWA JOURNAli WEDNESDAY. MAY 13, 1942. Side Lights Old Imperishable. Manchester Guardian.

It said there are rumors that the Germans have carried out, "Commando raids" on this country and that Nazi troops have actually been seen in the streets of some English towns. Their observers are, of course, mistaken. What they have seen are Russians left over from the famous expeditionary force which landed in this country in August 1914. It is a simple matter to set all douots at rest, for they can be recognized at once by the snow on their boots. Music In Wartime.

London Times. The Carnegie United Kingdom Trust states that a remarkable feature of the war has been the extent to which music-listening and music-making have not only survived but also developed, partly along old roads and partly in new directions. Trust payments in respect of musical activities of all kinds rose steeply to nearly fc 14,000 in 1841. A scheme Is now in force under which the most important of the symphony orchestras and the Sadler's Wells Opera Company are enabled to take their performances to areas which they would not normally visit When the Bombs Fall. New York Times.

said the properly indoctrinated Japanese father, "we know how many things are not true. They tell untruths who say American airplanes can fly over our Nippon. It is untrue that when they do fly over they can drop bombs. It is false when we hear that their bombs can start fires. We know this, do we not? But my son, when you hear those planes that are not there, when you see the "bombs that cannot fall, when you feel the flames that cannot start forget truth and untruth and fetch the water palls and the sand buckets.

Otherwise, we shall be living in a house that Is not here. Do you understand?" Save the Wild Guelph Mercury. There is another reason why we should not pick the flowers ip or near our cities and (owns. There are not enough of them forjll, and if the first person who finds them carries them away, he robs everyone else of the chance of seeing and enjoying their beaty. A wild flower that is picked gives pleasure to only a few people, but if it is left to grow it may be enjoyed by hundreds of thousands.

Many wild flowers soon wither and lose their beauty, and very often are thrown away soon after being gathered. They are loveliest when left growing in their natural surroundings. And so for the sake of others and for the sake of planU themselves we should not pick the wild flowers that are still found in or near our cities and towns. Heme From Canada. Somerset County Gazette.

Pilot Officer T. Maunders, only son of Mr. V. Maunders. of Silver street Milverton.

near Taunton, is one of the thousands of young airmen 'who have won their "wings" through the Empire Air Training Scheme. This week, when home on leave, he gave some impressions of his Canadian visit On reaching Canadian soil he had a 40-hour rail journey before arriving at his station. Mr. Maunders and his 40 col leagues had an early experience of Canadian hospitality, for they were given 12 days', leave immediately, the former course at the station having Just passed out and all of them were invited to stay with Canadian families at a small lakeside resort bearing the familiar name of Southampton. "This was indicative of the spirit of all the Canadians we met dur ing stay said Mr.

Maun ders. "They were unbelievably considerate to anyone from the Old Country, and they are doing grand work in helping to win this war. 1 Miner Absurdities. The Printed Word. The coal administrator ordered, and the chairman of the Wartime Prices aind Trade Board approved, effective May 1.

that a "cord" of wood means 128 cubic feel of stacked fuelwood. A cord of wood has been legally just that since June 28, 1933, according to an act to amend the Weights and Measures Act In case the coal administrator or the chairman desires to check this, it can be found as Paragraph 22A of the act and appears on page 244 of a legal tome entitled "Statutes of Canada, Although we are not in the coal and wood business, we remembered the enactment The Ontario Milk Control Board and the Wartime Prices Board have between them put everyone who retails milk in cartons in a position of being compelled to break the law. Milk in stores in Ontario is seven cents a pint The retailer must charge a half 'cent for the carton. To charge eight cents, "as is the immemorial custom, piercing the" ceiling; to charge seven cents, which might be deemed anti-inflationary, is to undersell milk at retail and that is a high crime in the milk business according to Ontario law. A similar situation applies to the ruling that the retailer may charge five cents "per bushel" extra per month for potatoes to provide tor seasonal advances in that commodity.

But the potato expert who fixed the sliding scale on the bushel evidently does not know the potato law. It is obligatory that potatoes be sold in packages containing specifically, 10, 15, 23, 90 or 73 pounds. No matter how that five cents per bushel is worked out it comes to a fraction of a cenU Canada is a Vacuum Says Washington Editor MOPSY 7 I. N. S.

el Tk Jearaal Staff. WASHINGTON, May 8. 1942. gOME of the Imperial die-hards among us will be annoyed with this column and ask why paper and ink should be wasted on the foreign editor of the Washington Times-Herald. For this man, Mr.

Frank Wal-drop, feels and writes that Canada is a vacuum, and implies that what that vacuum needs and is going to get is a heaping dose of Americans to nil it But annoyance is not the way to treat any body of American opinion, large or small. At least we should hear them and not play ostrich. Mr. Waldrop told me his. "views with both clarity and courtesy but this story has a prologue.

ANARCH 14 Mr. Waldrop wrote a long signed article on his paper's editorial page giving thanks that Canada had permitted the United States to build a road through Canada to Alaska. "At he wrote, "the hard rock of inertia and natural selfishness has been blasted. But we must have not Just one road but a whole network of them and a railroad and qecess by air." Mr. Waldrop wrote that he could understand Canada's insistence upon retaining sovereignty.

"It is a tough proposition to face, but it is a tougher one to ignore. Canada is, in the national sense, a vacuum." Then followed an attractive summary of our country's natural resources and a vivid picture of our starvation' for population. Also an account of our French-Canadian troubles "weaknesses that are especially dangerous for a country so rich. Canada would not last five minutes without the protection of the United State so why this stalling? Does Ottawa want to become another Singapore?" A week later Mr. Waldrop had another go.

at us. He began by saying that Australia's Mr. Curtin had "turned to the U.S. for leadership because Australia wants to survive this And then the vacuum again: "Nature abhors a vacuum Australia has been a vacuum and the rush is now on to see who fills it we or the Japs." Australian surfeit of acres and resources was outlined, the shortage of heads made clear. "Australia's hope of survival is the U.S.

alone, and we are doing our best at a very late date. The Australians should have let us in But the rest of this piece was devoted to Canada, tor Australia's plight should be a lesson to Canada. Our square miles and our heads were counted- again and our resistance to the U.S. road projects (real or Imaginary) outlined as before. Then: "Canada will you learn? Must you wait until, like Australia, you are making a last-ditch stand? Or will you come In now for your great profit and security as well as for our convenience.

Remember, Nature hates a vacuum." YyTCLL, these were the pieces of Mr. Waldrop. But pieces aren't written out of air or on soap bubbles. So I set out to talk to him, being quite convinced that a good many' Americans think as he does. Did he mean his vacuum threats to indicate the VS.

wlU be ready to send people to populate Canada after. the war? Yes, not immediately, but soon. Also to Australia? Yes, not Immediately, but soon. Would there be an American Empire? No, but near-sovereignty pver North and South America and a certain voice in European and world trade. What about England? Probably England would never regain her pre-war position; and.

the British Empire would never be the same again, nor nearly so. Did he think Canadian people would object to U.S. military roads in Canada? No, but there were difficulties in Mr. Waldrop felt the greatest wrong in American history was the American entry into the First Great War. He didn't talk of VS.

entry into this war but was not happy about Pearl Harbor et seq. The U.S. must build 'a strength that will make her never again dependent upon Britain's navy. Armed strength was the only thing the Americans knew how to use, he said. Diplomacy was hot their game, nor statesmanship.

There was only one body in the world the equal of the British Foreign Office and that was the Vatican. Both were built and are motivated on the same principle: survival. (Mr. Waldiop said he was speaking only for himself and not for his paper. But it might be mentioned that it is of the' Chicago Tribune and New York Daily News family, its owner.

Eleanor Patterson, being a cousin of Colonel McCormick. A trio of "anti" papers, fanatically isolationist before Pearl Harbor and "anti" just about anything you want to vote in favor of.) TALKED around the world several times; and if Mr, opponents think him unread or a fool they'll be sorry. Moreover, a lot of people read his stuff. As I sat down I noticed a large printed sign on the reverse side of his desk, facing the visitors' chair. I didn't comment on it but.after staying purposely for 30 minifies I thanked him and left The sign read: WHAT.

YOU AGAIN? Another Half Hour Gone to HelL In Two Places, Two Centuries, At One Time RmuU Kta-rja la Ike Vaaa-tr PraTlatt. AN a ship be in two places at the same time? Under certain conditions the answer is Captain John Duthie Sydney Phillips was the shipmaster who managed this unusual feat of navigation. For some 15 years Skipper Phillips commanded liners on the Vancouver-Australia run. Now a resident of Sydney. Captain Phillips has been looking through his old log books and he has produced the record of a remarkable incident.

It deals with the international date line which puzzles passengers. They turn in at night and find on waking that they have lost a day. The line bisects the equator between the Elllce and Phoenix islands and it was there that Captain Phillips put hli ship in two places at once. He was in command of the Warrimoo bound from Vancouver to Brisbane. Early on December 30, 1899, his second-in-command, now Captain F.

J. Bayldon, point ed out that if he cared to alter the ship's course a degree or two and suitably adjust her speed, she could cross the. 180th meridian where it intersected the equator exactly at 12 midnight. This prankish idea appealed to Captain Phillips and the necessary orders a-ere given. Five experienced navigators took careful observations of the sun when it was visible and of the stars at night The ship's position was checked every three hours and she reached the appointed spot at the appointed time.

Ahd here is what happened: The bows of the Warrimoo were in the southern hemisphere but her stern was in the northern hemisphere. One side of her was in the western hemisphere, the other in the eastern hemisphere. Passengers and' crew in the for ward part of the ship were living in Monday, January 1, 190(H Passengers and crew in the after part were still in Saturday. December 30, 1899, having "lost a Those forward were in a new century. Those aft in the old century.

And those aboard were the first people on earth to hail the new century and the last to bid the old century farewell. By Gladys Parker THE POTATOES IN My A OH, 7T vierocy garpen are pooh: SO BIG THEy WEIGH MINE ARE I ALMOST A POUNDV ISO BIG IT "Y7T ONLY TAKES Jfoj SIX TO MAKE IF Letters To the Editor Of The Journal THE REAL THRILL. Sir: BruceHutchison is an excellent writer and I like to read the extracts from his articles published occasionally in your columns. He let his foot slip, however, when told the story of the people of Victoria on bended knees, and with joy and adoration in their eyes, contemplating the first signs of young radishes pushing through the soil. Of course the Province of British Columbia is peculiar, so is the city of Victoria, and one must expect strange events to happen there.

Where could one find another province where members of Parliament have to take a sea voyage to reach their own capital? Where would one ftntf another city quiet and dignified and British as Victoria, B.C.? It's hard to catch the full impact of that story depicting the exaltation of grownup men poring over the first signs of radishes pushing upward in the Spring. I know a greater, fuller, richer joy than that Do you recall the first year or two of married life? Of course you do. You were busy at the office one morning and about 10.30 the telephone rang it was your vife. she said, "I have great news for you. Really, it is wonderful!" Suppressing your natural anxiety, you say softly, "Whatisit?" "Really dear, it's delightful.

I can hardly wait to tell you. I am terribly thrilled." You are You wonder if an unknown uncle in Singapore or Burma has died and left you a rubber plantation but you come back at your wife and say, "Spill it She answers in the sweetest possible whisper: "Auchinleck's got a You are appeased. The wait was worth it "Truly?" you murmur into the phone. she whispers back, "and he' laughed at me in the bath this morning Just to let me see it Come home early, darling, so that you can see it before he goes to sleep." And you do it You slip away as soon as possible. You just have to go home.

Oh, Bruce, how could you com pare a radish sprouting to a baby's smile with a first tooth in the background? You're living too close to the present. Radishes come up every year in Victoria but there is a limit to babies. A sprouting radish seed is worthwhile. I'll admit it but the memory of the coming of baby's first tooth is something eternal. One never forgets it R.J.

DEACHMAN. 218 Metcalfe street. Ottawa, May 8..1942. OXFORD OR WEBSTER? Sir: While most Canadians will agree with In Saturday's Journal concerning the pronuncia tion of the words he mentions. others will disagree with his contention that the Oxford dictionary should be the authority for all of us in Canada.

There arc about 112,000.000 people in the United Stales, whose native tongue is English. There are only about 42,000.000 people whose native tongue is English in the United Kingdom. The odds against the survival in Canada of the Oxford Dictionary's pronunciation over that of Webster's are well over two to one. When the large majority of English-speaking people in the world pronounce a word in a certain way that way becomes good English and any other way becomes dialect. To oppose the gradual spread of American English in Canada, while highly admirable, is to fight a losing battle against' overpowering odds.

Incidentally, in calling a commentator a "caption P.F. is using a meaning for the word "caption" which is typically American and, although quite justified by long and widespread usage, absolutely incorrect. A caption is a certificate attached to or written in a legal document. (See both Oxford and Webster.) R. L.

Bessercr street. Ottawa, May 11. 1942. ANOTHER Sir: Your correspondent "P.F.", who "complains of might have added to his lamentations another and equally irritating habit, in which a CBC news announcer is one of the chief sinners: The habit of pronouncing to rhyme with and "the" to rhyme with Almost daily we are treated to news broadcasts which Inform us that "ay naval battle is now in progress in thee Coral Sea. Many of thee ships of thee Japanese fleet have been sunk, including ay heavy cruiser, ay light cruiser, ay destroyer, ay Other Views LAVAL'S SKILL.

London Statesman and Nation Odious as Laval may be, it is a mistake to belittle him. He has in perfection the typical Fascist art of -using the' weaknesses of human NOT THE TIME FOR IT. St. Thomas Times-Journal. Many people in the city during the past f-w days have received a letter, an addressed envelope and a 16-page booklet from the Government annuities branch of the Department of Labor at Ottawa, asking them to buy annuities.

Annuities arc about the best way of ensuring independence and comfort during the last years of any man or woman. But this is no time, we, would say. to be printing 16-page booklets and sending them out In vast quantities all over the Dominion. GERMAN DEAD. Free Press.

Hitler's casualties must in the nature of things exceed five million men. To replace them he has scoured all Europe for cannon fodder. He has forced his Quislings to provide him with legionaries by. the thousand and hundred thousand. Hitler knows that he has to win in 1942 or not at all.

To win he has marshalled the productive forces and the able-bodied manhood of all Europe. The equipment he lost has been largely replaced. The soldiers he will use this year, are inferior to those he had last year, but he still has at least 5.000.000 men to 'throw into the Russian campaign. Te defeat him and win this war is going to be the most stupendous task mankind has ever undertaken. Ottawa In 1917 Fraai Ta Jaaraal ef Mar II.

PANON E. A. W. HANINGTON. for 40 years rector of St.

Bartholomew's Church, died at his home on Mackay street in his 75th year. The Journal said Russia was the world's biggest puzzle, with con-! flicting reports from Petrograd. and suggested some people were beginning to' wonder whether czar ism was so bad after all. The city of Ottawa gave a ban quet at the Laurentian Club to returned soldiers. Mayor Fisher in the chair.

M. Viviani, the special French delegate to Ottawa, had a rousing popular reception. Hull council turned down a bylaw which would have closed the pool rooms on Sundays. 8ALLTE FOR ESCAPISTS. humped or otherwlw.

remodelled lo ault the fare without detection. Outstanding ran permanently et back." Advertisement from "Plaatic Surgery Expert In London dally. These, in the day when heave was falling. The hour when earth's foundations fled. -Found nose that needed overhauling And ears too forward on the head.

Embattled Europe, swept by slaughter. Left their own private grief unchanged: "This nose of mine, it really oughter Be camouflazed and rearranged." The thugs of Nippon, hordes unended. Swept the Pacific for attack; And still the plaintive cry "By gosh, my ears need pinning back:" While cities blazed and With Freedom's fortunes at their ebb. As counter-irritant these cherished The floppy ear, the sprawling neb. Thus, through the wreck that war discloses.

j. These held to their peculu. point: 'Tis not the times but our poot noses That are so plainly out of Joint Lucio in the Manchester Guardian. submarine and ay supply ship Thee losses of thee British and American fleets are said to be re latively Perhaps "P.F." could include this in his campaign E. A.

F. Kourth avenue. Ottawa, May 12. 1942. 'A Likely Ticket' Bj Greer Caatala W.

Hrlar yHERE is one word in our language in which is crystallized the whole essence and meaning of succesful war it is the word attack. Just now with whetted by St. Nazay-e that word has a special magic of its own, for our blood still boils with rage at the bayonetings and tortures of Hong Kong, at the indignities of nearly three years of defensive war, and at the bombast threats of our enemies that worse is yet to come. There is an electric tension in the air like the dead pause before a storm. All round us is the rasp of sharpening weapons, the rumble of threats.

I don't think many of us arc es pecially preoccupied with the ene- my's weapons, or with his threats or plans of attack, for the soul of this nation yearns for self ex- prcssion in force, for some further means of surprising and humili- r. H. la Laaeaa ralllal. ating our tormentors out of theii smug monopoly in aggression. I am not belligerent scarcely any one of us is a lover of war and its accompanying barbarities but if there is to be a general market in horrors we have got to show that we have something on our own stall (o offer in return.

For more than a century the German has never known war in his own country except from the air and chiefly through the attentions of the Royal Air Force. We have been able to take It to him at his own front door at first, admittedly, only in 250 and 500-pound samples, but in the past few months enormously powerful high-duty bombs have been developed, new types of aircraft capable of transporting these giant eggs have come into ue. with the result that in a competition at the sorry technique of destruction we believe that we now hold a hksly ticket.