By the Way

Evening Star, Issue 23379, 23 September 1939, Page 3

By the Way

(By X.Y.)

A TABLE —(FIND THE MORAL) . High up above the valley floor Two eagles nested heretofore, And made incursions now and then Upon the peaceful world of men, To carry off a multitude Of little creatures for their food, Abstracting calves and kids and lambs, And babies (sometimes) from their prams.

Despite the losses they sustained Mankind, for quite a while, refrained From slaughtering these birds of prey. Because, indubitably, they Were picturesque, and had a right To nest on their ancestral height; And things would be quite tame without These eagles flying round about. But soon the talc of damage done Advanced beyond the stage of fun. One Eagle stopped a lethal shot; Tile other vanished from the spot And spent the balance of his age Securely in a Dutchman’s cage; Wherein they let him screech his fill, To show himself an Eagle still.

Then lambkins frisked around each

farm, ' And kids and calves, secure from harm. In search of pasture, far and wide. Pervaded all the countryside; While parents in the open air Disposed their babies everywhere; For since that pair of eagles went, The atmosphere exhaled content.

The nests remained as they had been; For since the Eagles left that scene Folk thought the peaceful Turtle-dove Would find those domiciles above; Or nightingales might rear their brood In that exalted altitude. Thrushes, perhaps, might come along. And fill the solitude with song.

Alas for all the valley folk I One summer morning they awoke And saw, descending from the skies, Two Vultures of appalling size, 111-favoured, scrawny carrion things, With crooked claws and flapping wings, The sort' of bird that startles you Among the Andes in Peru.

So now these carrion creatures fiy Screaming for blood, across the sky. And guiltless blood must needs be shed Before a bullet strikes them dead, Or skilful trapping brings them to The safe seclusion of a Zoo, For me—l hope internal trouble Will twist them up, and bend them double.

There are some interesting passages in Lord Londonderry’s book, ‘ Ourselves and _ Germany/ which "become really significant now that the rapprochement he tried by its publication to bring about has developed into an open breach. Ho had an interview with Hitler, at which Hess, Ribbontrop, and an interpreter were present. (Unlike Mussolini, Hitler prefers some of his entourage to be present when he gives audience to a foreign visitor.) Hitler began by expressing particular anxiety about the future development of the Soviet system in Russia, and complained that his fears on that score had been derided as pessimism and fantasy. Because of Bolshevism, he said, Europe and the whole world were on the point of plunging into a catastrophe of the same kind as the French Revolution of 150 years ago, bred of a similar situation. Now, a few years later, when he was warned that his proceedings were bringing Europe to the verge of catastrophe, he despatches Ribbentrop to Russia to negotiate for concurrence if not for co-operation.

“ Politically and economically speaking,” continued Hitler to Londonderry, “Continental Europe is living to a certain extent from band to mouth.” Leaving aside those unhappy countries in Central and Eastern Europe with which the Nazi forces have already dealt, we may glance at Switzerland, Denmark, Holland, and Belgium. If they are not' exactly living hand to mouth, they are living heart in mouth. Frontiers are manned simply because they have a neighbour careless of their rights should these intervene in his attempt to outflank the hereditary enemy. Aachen (or Ais la Chapelle) fronts Holland and Belgium equally, and it is there that a concentration of German forces is taking place, and particularly a concentration of air forces. Perhaps, because of the Maginot Line, it is of less significance that it is a convenient take-off for the historic route of the valleys of the Meuse and the Sambre, than that it is the nearest point in Germany to the mouth of the Thames. The defensive balloon barrage, the squadrons of British fighting planes to intercept enemy bombing planes, as well as the evacuation of school children and many others from London,

“The time has eoitne,** the Walrus said, "To talk of many things,”

are precautionary - measures which the German raiders encountered in, negligible degree when they swooped on Poland. *. - « It is seven years ago since the Disarmament Conference sat, at Geneva and languished and di&d. At that conference Senor Madariaga represented Spain, the first of any European State to experience the ruthlessl horror , of aerial bombardment. Evidently of prophetic mind, he was convinced that, once war had broken put, no restriction and rules of warfare could mitU gate to any extent the increasing horrors of this hitherto recurring catastrophe. He.was sceptical of the efficacy of rules and restrictions, bnt was fully convinced that once the desperate weapon of aerial warfare had been placed in the hand of man, there was no possibility of its being abolished. Madariaga was a realist,, But failed .to induce the Disarmament Conference to consider disarmament from a realistic point of view. It has Remained for Germany to confirm to the hilt all his apprehensions of the rutblessness with, which this most modern of all weapons would be employed. .

in the meantime all that Britain rrequires of New Zealand’s manhood is recruits for her Air Force. The extremely confused alignment' of other Great Powers possessed of sea,power makes it advisable for ns to retain man power .for Dominion defence. In respect of. training and material this is a responsibility; which > has not been lived up to in the past-few years, but the Government appears ’now to be awakening to the requirements of. the situation. What' Britain', seeks most from us at present is a supply of foodstuffs and other commodities* The incentive to increased production is . here in the form of a market‘ without limits in the way of absorption, but offering no prospect of what are Known as war profits. The New Zealand. Government is to act aS middleman between the Now Zealand producer and the British Government, having. that field exclusively to itself, and presumably fixing the prices the producers ‘receive in accordance with what the British Government pays. Thus the war comes to the aid of the New Zealand Government in helping towards the (realisation of oho of the cardinal points of its original programme.; Indirectly the war has already assisted the Government by adding urgent external reasons to the previously existing internal reasons for the taking of certain measures to meet an acute financial situation. >. ,

0 ye who spurn out-moded ways, ■ And scorn the Light of Other Days, Be-slathering with fulsome praise The Modern and the New, Beware lest, while you deprecate The Obsolete and OuVof-date, By some obscure decree of fate ■ A judgment fall on you, ’ ‘ 1 have a doleful tale to tell, And circumstances now compel A narrative of what befell Not very long ago, ; When I would cheerfully nave bought One gadget of an antique, sort. ‘ Which served for old Queei Bess’s court In one-six-double O. My dwelling—so I said with .prideIs thoroughly electrified. With lights within and lights outsida, And fixings everywhere ; A washer and a radio set, A cooker ill the kitchenette. Jug, vacuum cleaner—l forget .. ' Just everything that’s there. “ Just press the -switch —we do tius rest,” And I obeyed this mild request.’ . I filled my water jug and pressed

The switch to make it hot. ‘ (I like some comfort in my bed) Then came a flash, unheralded, And “Popl*’ the foul contraption said* Like any pistol shot. ' , Whereat, as at the crack of doom, The lights went out in every- room. And left me groping in the gloom 1 At half-past 10 p.jn. 1 I fear I swore unholy ofCths; For what a decent fellow loathes ’ Is fumbling blindly with his clothes* And losing track of them. \ Ah, would I had a candle! But Unluckily the shops were shut. And I, a poor bewildered mutt, ; Crawled in ’twist sheet: and- sheet* I counted twenty thousand . sheep (Or more) before I got to sleep , With no hot, water bag to keep The shivers from my feet. Next morning I descended straight Upon the corner store, at eight, .. And bought a, pound of out-of-dat* Contrivances in wax; , r. V.‘. For, even in this year df grace, They’re useful things -about -the-place,-We need a trusty light, in qaae . Our modern system cracks. .