LISTENINGS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 128, 5 December 1941, Page 14

LISTENINGS

Perpetrated and illustrated by

KEN.

ALEXANDER

Africa Speaks Again

HE Western Desert has awakened for the third round. The first went to Wavell, the second to Hitler, and the third-well, there’s no harm in thinking what we think,

One certainty is that Libya is not another Crete. American " Tomahawks," in British hands, are descending on squareheads. " Hurricanes" are doing all that hurricanes are meant to do, and " Spitfires" are spitting lead into the Luftwaffe’s eye. Down below, the British sand-hoppers and caterpillars can swap punches with the enemy without worrying about the roof falling in. Meanwhile, the Mediterranean sea-dogs are lobbing their hardware into the Axis bread-basket and re-addressing enemy supplies from Libya to Davy Jones. The Germans are hard hitters and it will not be another Roman holler-day for the Allies; but they are giving General Rommel something to write home about. Supplies will be his chief headache. With the boys-in-blue busily stocking Davy Jones’s locker with German-made goods it is reasonable to expect that the general will soon be thirsting for more than

water. An army used to move on its stomach, now it moves on its gas-trek juices. The spirit of war is as much highoctane as high morale; and Adolf needs all he can get of both in Russia. As Wickham Steed recently broadcast, Hitler must always go on. If he stops he falls, That’s the worst of getting drunk for power or pleasure. You have to keep on your feet or fall on your face. Unless Adolf can hand Moscow to Berlin with appropriate noises he just has to stay out in the snow, with no one to love him and nowhere to go. And there will be a paucity of celerity-soup on Rommel’s Libyan menu. It is unlikely that Adolf can rely on Muss. for much. Muss. has bitten the dust of Africa and the taste is still on his tongue. But Adolf, in his desperation, may try to awaken Musso. to a sense of irresponsibility. We can imagine the corresporidence: " Dear Muss, Pull up your socks and be a Caesar again! Remember! While there’s life there’s hope. Yours fitfully, Adolf." " Dear Adolf, Caesar didn’t wear socks. That may be the trouble with me-I was socked. And you're wrong about life. It’s ‘Where there’s hope there’s life.’ Yours lifelessly, Muss." " Dear Muss, Don’t quibble. You know how busy I am-absolutely snowed under! I can judge how desperate I must be when I ask your help. Bring your navy out of salt pickle and try to teach them that the toast of the service is not ‘Bottoms up.’ If your navy could sink the British fleet and your army could keep its toes pointed at the enemy we would be O.K, in Africa. Yours, Adolf." " Dear Adolf, If my navy could sink the British fleet I would not be Yours, Muss." So it einics as though, when Africa speaks, it will not be in Italian. And, if British grit goes for anything, it won’t be in German either.