LISTENINGS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 132, 2 January 1942, Page 10

LISTENINGS

Year In, Year Out

Perpetrated and illustrated by

KEN

ALEXANDER

HIS is the eve of a new year. It will be twelve months long and will have fifty-two weeks and the usual inconveniences. In other respects it will be as like its predecessor as Hitler is like what he thinks he is like. For instance: Last New Year we were of the war but not in the war, according to the tules of Messrs. Longitude and Latitude. This New Year Mars is practically on the mat to greet us with the morning’s milk. Last New Year we enjoyed sufficient detachment to promulgate tactical titbits from armchair headquarters. This year we are up and doing, instead of down and dozing. Actually, this is the first year that war has rung the doorbell instead of communicating by cable. And has it wakened us up? Last New Year the world was wondering for how long Hitler and Stalin could remain jolly old pals. This year the answer is already sprouting whiskers to counteract the Russian blast.

Last year Hitler was by way of building up a legend of Nazi invincibility. This year sees him pushing home through the snow toting the remnants of a strange device, but not saying a word about "Excelsior" or ‘"‘ Eureka," like those go-getting guys who loved to battle with the storm. But this year may see some dust from the Fuhrer’s dying kicks in Turkey, Irak, Iran, or Libya. Last New Year, Hitler badly wanted Japan to dive into the soup and so divide America’s aid to Britain. This year Japan has dived into the soup and has cemented all the cracks in America’s aid to Britain. Last New Year Musso was beginning his great backward drive from Egypt. This year Rommel is carrying on the good work, while Musso declares the corpse of Italian war on U.S.A., from his marble mausoleum in Rome. Last New Year Hitler was boasting of what he was going to do to the world. This New Year the world is beginning to show what it is going to do to Hitler. Last New Year Hitler was proclaiming that he was a god. This year he may be realising that he spelt the word back to front.

Last New Year Hitler was secretly planning Nazi central heating in the Kremlin. This year, Ribbentrop is introducing a phony peace to Stalin in the hope of extricating the Nazi pincers from the Russian nut. Staiin has replied with the Slav equivalent of " Nerts." Things are not what they were in Russia. Last New Year the Pacific was pacific. This New Year it has done what we might have expected, but didn’t. But there is an old Chinese proverb which explains it-if I could only think of it. There is always an old Chinese proverb

to explain anything. A new Chinese, Mr. Hu Shin, says it quite nicely with the words, "The Far Eastern phase of the war will be terminated relatively soon, Japan will be knocked out within one year." The Chinese are not given to hasty postulation. Mr. Hu Shin is supported by his European cousin Mr. Horse Sense. It will be a Hopey New Year.