The Darkness Deepens

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 69, 18 October 1940, Page 4

The Darkness Deepens

T would be foolish to pretend that Japan’s line-up with Germany and Italy leaves Britain undisturbed. It is a grave development which neither Britain nor any British Dominion can treat lightly. Here in the South Pacific it is the most serious news since the fall of France. But anxiety is never an excuse for fear. Whatever Japan does or tries to do, we are in a better position from almost every angle than we were two months ago. First we know now, and don’t just hope, that Germany will not conquer England. We know that not enough airmen can be assembled anywhere in the world to destroy the R.A.F. We know that the United States grows stronger every day and draws nearer to Britain every day-and will continue in the same direction whatever happens next month in Washington. We don’t know what Russia will do, now that her diplomacy has brought her so suddenly between the European hammer and the Asiatic anvil. But we know as much about that as Japan does, and as much now as is known in Germany, and we have no more reason than those countries have to be worried over the possibilities. Here again we must not fall back on sooth-saying. But we know how anxious Russia must be whether she looks East or West; how little she trusts her neighbours and how little they trust her; how many armies are immobilised as long as suspicion remains; and in any case that all the hosts of Hell will not conquer Britain while she holds the seas and controls her own skies. There is a sense in which God is never mocked (whatever we mean by God). Reckless though it may sound to say so just now, humanity and decency are mighty allies. Neither in Germany itself nor in any of the countries at present under the German heel is humanity so blind that it can’t see and decency so deaf that it can’t hear. A just and generous conqueror has a chance of retaining his conquests. A tyrant and a liar has none. There are more men and more materials, more power and more resilience outside the control of the Axis than in all the regions it now dominates; and every man outside who is not a moron knows that the question is no longer whether he will save his life or lose it but whether he will endure hardship long enough to allow the tide of civilisation to turn.