Full Circle

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 130, 19 December 1941, Page 4

Full Circle

the whole world round with fire. Since the beginning of last week there has been no front-rank power out of the battle line, and none of the smaller powers safe and free. The world has returned to the chaos from which it thought it had emerged, and it will never again know the shape of 1938. So much we all see clearly. We realise, too, most of us, that the spread of the war to the Pacific lengthens and intensifies it. Japan’s first blow was the blow of the savage, educated but — amoral. A savage by our standards Japan will remain-the beast of Nanking, the — serpent of Oahu Island. But the beast is brave, the serpent quick and cunning. Nobody knows, or so far can safely guess, how many warships Japan has, or how many planes. Nobody knows how many men she has trained, how many she can equip. We know that she was able in four days to do more damage to the fighting ships of the democracies than Germany and Italy combined achieved in any four months; and if we forget that for a single hour we are not fit to guard the gates of liberty. But the lesson of the week is more obvious even than those things and more elementary. It is as simple as this: that sleep is the brother of death. The enemy reached Pearl Harbour because America slept too long. He sank the Repulse and Prince of Wales because Britain slept too long. He overran Europe because democracy slept too long. He now threatens the whole world because wisdom slept too long-did not see or hear or understand or cry out till one half of the world was encircled by brigands eeirs the other half sold to spies. It has all been said before, over and over again. A few have never ceased saying it. But it was not till three or four days ago that the truth at last got through-and it might never have reached us if our enemies had preserved the rudiments of decency. We have been saved not by our own vigilance but by their perfidy, and when the long night passes we shall thank God for driving them mad before they had quite destroyed us. attack on Pearl Harbour ringed