LISTENINGS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 155, 12 June 1942, Page 12

LISTENINGS

(Perpetrated and illustrated

by

KEN

ALEXANDER

ITLER has come to the last H round-up in Europe. He just has to win this time or take the count-and what a count! For him, stalemate or a draw is Ambition’s good-night kiss. Even a win in Libya would be mere sandy blight if he loses in Russia. A real win in Russia would leave him with plenty in his glove for Libya. So hell holds its breath while he fights out the question of whether hell is to be let loose on earth for generations or whether the lid is to be clamped down, good and hard, on hell, Hitler, and the red hand of homicide. And it looks as though there are even darker times ahead for the powers of darkness. After all, Hitler's "genius" consists only in persuading millions of yes-men to die, and keep on dying, for the privilege of saving Hitler’s hide and the Nazi pig-skin generally. It certainly requires ability to get people to die so completely. It is difficult enough to persuade people to live for you. It’s a feat to get them to die for you. But how long will Germany part up in flesh and blood without seeing some-

thing better for its money? Adolf must be wondering about this, too; because he has instructed Himmler the Hangman to whip up all the most fanatical youth of Germany into a "Save the Fuhrer" body. Evidently, Adolf finds it less easy to bluff himself than to bluff his people. The trouble is that he has made it so tough for himself. When the wheel of the Axis is broken, he will have nowhere to flee. Even Japan will resent shaking hands with the man who pulled her leg. Japan appears to feel that: it is wise to get a strangle-hold on China before Satan gets one on Hitler. It looks as though Hitler’s "Fall in" was really his "last post." ;