CRISIS COMMENTARY

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

CRISIS COMMENTARY

PEOPLE OP BRITAIN FACE THEIR EMERGENCY i [Written by Doxai.u Cowiu, for the ‘ Evening Star.’] Once again war may or may nob have been declared by the time this article is read; indeed, the writing of crisis commentaries has. become almost ah unfortunate habit with authors of my type. What else can we do, if we ace to continue to earn bread and butter until khaki finally claims us at its public wage? But we all feel in Britain at present, August 28, 1939, that war is nearer than it has been in our generation. Perhaps the next few days may bring, another respite; perhaps Herr Hitler ma3’ sensibly pause at the odds against him. The fact remains that we are facing disaster at the closest quarters at last, and, whatever the outcome, it is long since our quiet people were stirred to such unwonted activity. The human consequences, neglected in conventional report, and official reckoning, have been both stirring and grim. Let me choose some typical instances at haste from my own observation. As in last September, the problem for the individual, household has been twofold, what service the man will be required to render, and how bis wife and children can bo conveyed to immediate safety. There has been far less rush and excitement than last September, but the preparations have been made with far more thoroughness and businesslike intent. It, is realised that conscription would soon involve every healthy man in event of war; consequently most of ns have volunteered at once, some with distressing fatalism, as those who have joined the Air Force immediately, often without vocation, but because “ if yon are going to be killed you may as well get it over quickly.” I have heard that from several otherwise robust individuals. although it may not be taken as a general tendency by any means. But most have found places for themselves at once, in this service or that, and there are few who have no affiliations at all in this interregnum between peace and war. Thus it may be deduced that war

would find us better prepared to-day than possibly at any time in our history. The evacuation from London would be remarkably complete. Most of the children would go—l went out just now and watched their being marshalled in a school yard—two million people altogether would be removed to the country by free transport; and everybody else who can persuade his wife and’children is sending them away. There have been some touching scenes already and some distasteful ones. A proverb will shortly be invented about crises’s bringing out the best and worst in little men. I can see little as yet against the countryfolk who are accommodating these refugees. They are not charging exorbitant prices, considering the circumstances, and they are very willing to help. It is only when cottages have been rented suddenly by townsfolk that small problems have ra'isen. ' We know several people who gushingly promised friends asylum in these newly-acquired refuges, and who are now going hack on their word. With little people of this type the crisis is an occasion for sudden display of hitherto unsuspected bad manners and self-interest. But, again, these are the few, and, being so, the spectacular. How much more heartening is the average mood! One old lady of our acquaintance, a Russian Jew- long domiciled in England, was arguing stoutly with her grown-up son and daughter that she should not flee to Wales. They were staying in London ; why shouldn’t she stay and look after them? After better international news yesterday the old lady’s face was one big smile: “I’m not going!” she declared triumphantly. “ They have tried to bully me, these children, but there won’t be any war, I think, and if there is, well, I shall remain!” It was a pleasant moment.

But this morning the news is bad again, and I’m afraid she will have to go. Yes, there are the helpless cowards, and the cold, calculating ones; but the chief difficulty of most men in this crisis has been to fitrsiwtht dependents to leave. Government has found the same with the slum-dwellers it is seeking to evacuate. In many cases the tough cockney women have flatly refused to budge. “ Why should Hitler scare us?” they ask in-effect; and it is obvious that many of them would rather die like rats in their crowded tenements than live as guests in other women’s country back kitchens.

But sensible evacuation would make all the difference to public morale in the first weeks of a war, and it has had to go on. A business friend of mine was dismayed this morning at his inability to locate the head office of a big insurance company with which he has dealings. The firm had flown overnight to an unknown country destination and had left no address. I have just received the following printed post card from my own society, the A.M.P.:—“ In view of the international situation the society will—until further notice—conduct its business from Hindhead, Surrey, and the address will be ‘ Tarnmoor,’ Hindhead, Surrey.” Those at a London terminus on Saturday night were amazed to see two special trains loaded with 1,000 banking officials and 6,000 metal cases of vital records, files, and tabulating machines. The famous London Clearing House, hub of the financial system, was clearing out

Office staffs were working all Sunday in the City, packing lorries with documents and files, photographing (in the case of banks) customers’ signatures on special films, transferring Lombard street and London AVall to distant fields and pastures new. The museums and art galleries have been dismantled; the publishers are on the moors. Indeed, the capacity of tho people for adaptation and innovation in this emergency has proved without exaggeration amazing, and should hearten every observer who fears for civilisation’s future. I would say seriously that Britain is proving at present that, whatever the calamity, provoked by this wanton Hitler, civilisation would easily

endure. I am certain that the will of Britain tmday is that Germany must not be allowed to secure Danzig and the Polish Corridor by force. It is not a question of Danzig or Poland. We all realise that. It is a question of the future of the rest of Europe and the world—besides a growing impatience with these infernal crises. Every man is a business man in these days, and every woman an accessory thereto. It is impossible that these dislocations should continue much longer. F.veryone of us would grimly fight—if only for a quiet life.