IN BRITISH ARMY

Evening Star, Issue 23685, 19 September 1940, Page 2

IN BRITISH ARMY

AMERICAN LAWYER ENLISTS “ May I use your columns to tell my old friends and fellow countrymen why I have made up my mind to add my name to those few other Americans who have entered the British Army? It is simply that civilisation stands to-day. with its back to the wall, and its existence depends on the armed forces of Britain and her Allies (writes William D. Whitney, from London to the American Press). , . ' “ This is a moment of action —when deeds alone count. That is not our doing; that is simply and solely because the Germans under Hitler have made deeds the sole test, and have forced ua to accept their test. This is just at surely true as if one were to see a murderer running amok in a public street, or as indeed it was when gangsters were running amok in the streets of our cities. Public thought then was paralysed with fear. But moralising wa* useless. Only the cool, deliberate organisation of a few brave men of grca¥ physical courage finally turned back the gangsters by using their own weapon** “Who can draw a distinction between Dillinger, on the one hand, and Hitler, Goering, and Goebbels, on the other? At 4 a.m. on .September 1, 1939, thousands of Poles were murdered without warning in their beds. At 4 a.m. on May 10, 1940, thousands of Belgians and Dutch were murdered without warning in their beds.. Is there a court in the United States that would not hold the perpetrators of these cool, deliberate crimes to be guilty of murder in the first degree? “ I am not a trained soldier. Foe 16 years I have been a lawyer practising in New York. I was born on Long Island, of American parents. _ But, having seen this crime and having in the midst of it seen the bravery and coolness of these fine people who alone havw had the foresight to stand up and defend civilisation without waiting for their turn to be made victims, how could I hold back from helping them, no matter how humble and obscure my part may be?”