LISTENINGS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 153, 29 May 1942, Page 9

LISTENINGS

Perpetrated and illustrated bv

KEN

ALEXANDER

ERMANS claim to have another secret weapon. Perhaps they also have a secret excuse for its secret non-appearance. The resurrection of the "secret weapon" shows how secretly desperate the Nazis are becoming. Can’t they think up something so dangerous that it doesn’t have to be kept secret? The Germans like to play bogy-bogy. Every German has his bogy to frighten him into doing things he’s afraid to do. He thinks evety one else must be afraid of bogies. So he produces "secret weapons." But the Russians have shown that the quickest way to prove bogies bogus is to discount reaction by action. Post-war prognosticators are fond of telling us what we are fighting for. But it’s what we’re fighting with that matters more for the present. Russia declares that the war will be decided in 1942. Cordell Hull seems to be of the same opinion. The world is willing to believe that the biggest bang is often the last. But one is never certain which way the pieces will fly.

The American High Command is becoming convinced that the war may be settled in the next six months. Hitler is afraid of this, too. The Japanese have advanced over a hundred miles into China by the Burma Road. But the Japs have been advancing into China for five years. The Japs seem to be finding that New Guinea is giving them a run for their money. The rate of exchange is against them at the moment. * * * New definition of smoking: Making light of taxation! Instead of "R.S.V.P." at the foot of invitations put "B.Y.O.S."--"bring your own sugar."