THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 20, 19 October 1943, Page 4

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

Comments —Reflections

“Copernicus serves to remind us that small nations have given for the common advantage of all peoples many of the great enduring concepts which have enriched the life of man.”—President Roosevelt.

“Germany recently admitted that a quarter of the 49,000,000 workers in German production are foreign workers ami prisoners of war. Embttered French workers and their fellowvictims in the heart of Germany industry may yet take a potent share in the overthrow of Nazi tyranny. The Trojan horse is already within the gates; and it is the Germans themselves who have so strenuously carried it. in.”—Special correspondent in London “Times.”

“The British-American Conference on Refugees at Bermuda was convened in response to appeals, specially from Jewish grotiris, primarily the Zionist Jews. Bermuda was chosen to insulate Hie conferees from the published advertisements, petitions, pageants, and mass meetings which would have attended a conference in London, Washington, Ottawa. Among the bard facts, as they were seen in official Washington, were these: American public opinion will not accept modification ofthe immigration laws to admit more refugees. This was demonstrated as recently as January by a unanimous vote of the House Ways and Means Committee. British public opinion holds similarly that the United Kingdom has absorbed its share of refugees.”— Ernest K. Lindley. “Free World,” U.S.A.

Considered purely from the point of view of transportation, it is highly improbable that Soviet armies could advance rapidly into central Europe unless there is a complete collapse of German military might. It is a matter of railroads and a flatter of gauge. Russian railroads have a five-foot gauge. The railroads of central and of most of western Europe use the 4ft. Blin. gauge. The Nazi rail arm has converted more than 15,000 miles of Russian track to standard gauge, and the 31in. difference is one of the most serious obstacles on Stalin’s way west and Hitler’s most effective defence. It was relatively easy for the Nazis to advance along the Russian wide-gauge tracks. With characteristic thoroughness the German rail arm, Jong before tlie war, had been equipped specially for such an offensive. The Germans had a reserve of several thousand freight cars and locomotives with adjustable axles which could be used until the Russian gauge had been Starrowed to standard width. They also had efficient motor transportation.— Paul Wohl, New York “HeraldTribune.”

“A Vichy paper has reported that the Grecian Nike of Samothrace, “Winged Victory,” the superb ship’s figurehead of stone which had so long dominated the entrance hall of the Louvre in Paris, is now at Goering’s Castle Karinhall, near Berlin. It must have been a terrific job to move the Nike from the Louvre to Germany. It was only because of its great weight that it was still in Paris when the Germans came, for the French, forseeing the German looting, had moved many of the Louvre’s priceless art treasures into Central France. The Nike had been too heavy to move. But not for Goering, the art-lover. Fantastic act of vandalism though it was, this amounts only to a small sample of the “art collecting” winch the Germans have done and are doing in this war. For the first time in history the plunder of famous works of art has been made a systematic part of warfare. This wholesale robbery exceeds the wildest tales by writers of fiction. In every country the Germans have invaded they have rounded up the art treasures and hauled them away—to be sold, put in German museums, added to the private collections of Nazi leaders or destroyed. Just as they have uprooted whole peoples, so they have ripped up the roots of whole cultures, from France to Greece, Austria, to Russia. Paintings, sculpture—all are loot.” —Eugene Tillinger, New York “Herald-Tribune” supplement.

“Even though listening in to the 8.8. C. broadcasts is punishable by death, •and many death sentences have already been passed, it is imposisble iu practice to exercise complete control over listeners. Names of traitors aud Gestapo agents have been broadcast from London several times in order to frustrate their activities. They were boycotted at once and had to move from their residences quickly. On December 19, 1941, a declaration was broadcast concerning the non-recogni-tion of the transference of Czechoslovak property into foreign hands, insofar as such transference of disposal has been carried out since September 27, 1938, under pressure of enemy occiipa,ti°n or also ululer exceptional political circumstances. On June 17, 1942. a Cabinet resolution was made known, stating that: for all the crimes committed by Germans or local traitors on Czechoslovak territory or against Czechoslovak citizens, the persons who had committed, instigated, aided and abetted them are held personally responsible. This broadcast resulted in drawing up of lists of such persons by the population, and in a well-founded uneasiness among German officials and the handful of Czech traitors.”—“Four Fighting Years,” published on- behalf of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs Department of Information.

A Seasonable Thought. Give fools their gold and knaves tbeir

power, Lot fortune’s bubbles rise and fall, Who sows a seed or tends a flower, Or plants a tree is more than all. —Whittier.

Destiny. These things beyond the treachery and

Beyond the freedom men are fighting

for, The dream, the hope, the daring to aspire Town rd unknown worlds, advancing higher

Than man has gone before. Will to achieve Man’s destiny. The power to conceive The relativity of God’s design. These are ihe things beyond, tlie true, the line, That lie unbounded within every soul. These things beyond—still man’s predestined goal. —Dorothy Quick, in the “Cliurchman.”