AWAKENED NOW TO REALITIES

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 190, 8 May 1940, Page 10

AWAKENED NOW TO REALITIES

England And The War FRANCE’S DRAMATIC VIEW OF NAZI MENACE

(Bx

Observes.)

Whether or not the British. Government comes unscathed through the House of Com.mons inquest ou the Norway affair it. is certain that on tbe larger issue of tlie conduct of the war as a whole an awakened public opinion will demand a thorough energizing of all-round policy. British opinion has been jolted from tbe complacent notion that in tlie maintenance of a quiet but firm pressure on the enemy time will win the war for us. The withdrawals from central and southern Norway have forced a realization—and that with a sickly thud—that we are opposed by an immensely powerful, enterprising and unmoral enemy. The lesson from Norway litis been learned not a day, not an hour 100 soon. A friend has sent, me an arresting article entitled, "What We Are Up. Against,” published during March in tlie official journal of tbe Eton Manor Clubs. These clubs are welfare organizations in Britain for working-class boys and young men, managed by Old Etonians. Here are parts of the article: — We must face facts, bitter, unpleasant and depressing facts, with one major principle always in our minds. It is that we are not fighting simply for tbe release of the Poles, the Czechs, tbe Slovaks and the Austrians from a slavery of unequalled cruelty and beastliness. We are not fighting simply for the restoration of decency, peace and liberty in Europe. We are fighting for our very lives, for tlie lives of our children, against an immensely powerful and completely ruthless eiiemv, whose whole national forces are concentrated to one end—the defeat and enslavement of the French and British people.*, the conversion of tlie British and French empires into Nazi colonies. Wo repeat the words—we are lighting for our lives. Lot there be no mistake about, this grim reality. After urging the need for employing everything England possesses in wealth, fighting-power and labour to tlie task of earning victory the article goes on to emphasize the realistic attitude of tbe people of France. It proceeds:—

Perhaps we do not see the issue as clearly as M. Louts Themoin, the President of the Franco-British Alliance, who said: "Tile French understand that the Prussian of 1864, the Boclie of 1914, an 1 the Nazi of today are only aspects of the same wild beast —brutal and sadistic Germany.'’

The "Ere Nouvelle” points out that tlie war offers two alternatives, “to accept every kind of privation and advance to a smashing victory, or perish miserably in slavery and ruin; we must win outright. in order to crash the beast while there is still time.” It. is in that, prom] spirit that the French people have embarked updn this war. lu the aircraft factories and armament works thousands of men are working with their blue overalls over their army uniforms, They are not drawing the wages of skilled workmen, but the pay of a poilu in the field. Gone by the hoard is the cherished 40-bour week, gone tlie newly gained rates of pay for skilled men. The munition and aircraft workers of France regard themselves as the soldiers of the Home Front, so they work a soldier's hours and draw a soldier’s pay.

Thus has the fact-facing Frenchman faced up to the life-or-denth alternatives of the hour. Englishmen, slower to see the dangers of easy-going complaisance, have had to be shocked to an abrupt awakening. So sacrifice has been popularized overnight. When—indeed when—will this ennobling and warwinning quality popularize itself in New Zealand?