Zurich Herald, 1941-09-11, Page 2Mackenzie King
In Great Britain
Canadian Newspaper Com-
ments on Prime Minister
Mackenzie King and Can -
aide's War Effort Pro and
Con
"For mantes past there has been
unending criticism that Canada's
war effort was not being pushed
to the fullest degree. In the earli-
er days of the war that criticism
had some basis in actual fact,
though it was unfair and unjust
when applied to our war effort as
a whole." says the Montreal Star.
The Ottawa Journal says: "In
London Lord Beaverbrook, re-
turned from a visit to Canada
and the United 'States, told inter-
viewers that Canada's production
of war supplies is on a much larger
scale than during the last war, and
that 'probably it compares for pop-
ulation with any country in the
world," The Montreal Star further
Bays that the Canadian war pro-
gram is excellent; that marvellous
results have been obtained; and
that munitions production in al-
most all branches is being carried
on
'That is what the Canadian
people want to know; that is what
they authorized the present gov-
ernment to do when they sent it
back to office. It is encouraging
to hear from so exacting a task-
master as Lord Beaverbrook that
Canada's war effort is so satisfac-
tory.
"But he does not mean that we
can now rest on our oars. He defi-
nitely says Britain will never be
satisfied with the amount o8 ma-
terial she is getting,.. because she
needs every possible thing she can
get both from Canada and the
United States."
* a *
"Lt. Gen. McNaughton, comman-
der of the Canadian Corps,"
says the Ottawa Journal, "spoke
to reporters 'somewhere in Eng-
land,'
ngland, praised the equipment being
tent to Canadian troops. Every-
thing, he said, from boots and bat-
tledress to Bren guns and carriers,
had, proved of the highest quality."
The Montreal Star asks, "Is it
too much to hope that this dec-
laration, from the one man who
Is in a better position than any
other man living to speak with
authority on these matters, will
give the quietus once and for all
to the insinuations which, though
not so vocal as formerly, are still
heard in some political circles, sug-
gesting that the Canadian soldier
is not adequately equipped? Even
regarding the battledress, which
bas been the subject of consider-
able adverse comment .dere, Gen.
McNaughton says it is unquestion-
ably the best fitting, most endur-
able, and warmer."
• • •
The Ottawa Journal goes on to
say "Most of us have but small
realization of the tremendously in-
creased tempo of Canadian industry
during the past year; know little
of the vast plants that have sprung
up clear across the country; of the
tremendous quantities of all sorts
of munitions and war supplies that
are coming from new streamlined
factories. How many Canadians
realize, for example, that up to
some mouths ago this country had
the largest automatic gun plant in
the world? Or that Canada had one
of the largest chemical plants in
the British Empire? How many
know that we are turning out anti-
aircraft gun barrels for the United
States? How many have much con-
ception of the scores of thousands
of transport trucks that we h ve
shipped overseas?
"This country, in its war effort,
must not grow complacent. And
this country, for the same reason,
must never surrender its right to
criticize. At the same time it is
but just and decent that we be
fair and give due credit to those
who, compelled to begin from
scratch and to work ander the
inevitable handicaps of democratic
processes, have been providing for
Canada a creditable war perform-
ance. It would be a poor—and
unprofitable—sort od party war-
fare that would fail in such recog-
nition.,"
• • •
The Stratford Beacon -Herald
,says "Boos tossed at Prime Minis-
ter King by troops overseas will
echo pleasantly to some Canad-
ians, and will be heard with in-
difference by others. The reaction,
to a large extent, will be determ-
ined by where you sit, and what
you want to believe."
"It 'would be a mistake," says
the Windsor Daily Star, "to mini-
mize
inimize the significance of the dem-
onstration staged at the military
sports day. It would be an even
worse one to conclude that serious
trouble is brewing, and that our
armed men are bent on trouble and
are unwilling to listen to reason."
• r *
"Taken ell in all, Mr, King's
trip to London should be all to the
good for our war part," says the
Ottawa Journal. "When he comes
to Parliament in November be will
have more prestige, more author-
ity, more information. That should
enable Parliament to act more de-
cisively,"
ELSIE THE COW TRAVELS IN STATE
One of the outstanding features of the Canadian National Exhi-
bition was the presence from New York of Borden's famous "Elsie
the Cow", and, during the entire fourteen days of the Exhibition,
her ladyship was collecting funds in her Victory Chest for the Eve-
ning Telegram's British War Victims' Fund.
In the picture "Elsie" is seen leaving the Canadian Pacific Ex-
press car in which she slept at night, for her special "boudoir" in the
Food Products Building, accompanied by her bodyguard, friend and
counsellor, Clovis Wells.
THE WAR - WEEK — Commentary on Current Events
"War Sweeps World Like
Black Untethered Wind"
Two years ago this month Hitler
said "I have put on my old sol-
dier's coat, and I will not take it
off until we achieve victory .
November of 1918 shall never be
repeated In the history of Germ-
any." Even as this declaration
was brought by radio to a tensely
waiting world, the German legions
were closing in on Poland and the
second World War had begun.
Within three weeks the conquest
of Poland was complete, Full of
confidence after this devastating
Blitzkrieg suecess, Hitler offered
"friendship" to England, declared
to the French that he had no "in-
terests in the west" and assured
Moscow that the new accord be-
tween Russia and Germany ex-
cluded "the use of force for all
time."
Answer To Hitler
Britain's reply was an Anglo-
French ultimatum to Berlin, de-
manding the withdra•lial of Ger-
man troops from Poland. The
Royal Navy was cleared for action.
France reported that "everything
was ready." She turas calm and se-
cure behind the fortifications of
the Maginot. Line.
The little lands of Europe --the
Balkans, the Low Countries, Nor-
way, Sweden—made haste to pro-
claim their neutrality. Italy cau-
tiously adhered to her policy of
"non -belligerency." Russia remain-
ed aloof and Japan watched and
waited. In the United States the
Labor Day holiday crowds went
merrily on their way while Presi-
dent Roosevelt anxiously consider-
ed the war bulletins and replied
"Prime Minister King in England
will see:
1. Conscription of men and wo-
men, high and low, and their con-
secration to the common cause of
defeating the tyranny of Hitler.
2. Conscription of labor. He
will not witness slow-nown or sit-
down strikes in the Kingdom. He
'will find miners working at high
tempo to produce coal, and steve-
dores under compulsion to unload
ships at any and all hours neces-
sary. -
3. Conscription of wealth to a
degree in taxation which just about
amounts to socialism in our day.
4. Equality of sacrifice, equality
of service„the linty of a great race
of people cemented by inspired,
far-sighted and aggressive leader-
ship in Churchill.
5 A war government not con-
fined to one party, but made up of
the best risen of all parties, and
the best governing brains of the
Kingdom,
Those are among the things
which Prime Minister Ring will
see or ought to be able to see, so
that when he returns, Canada's
war effort will be sanctified, re -
consecrated and strengthened for
the annihilation of chose evil
forces now shadowing the whole
World.”
to the question "Gan we stoy out
of it?" by saying "I net+_-oniy sin-
cerely hope so, but I ' believe we
can, and every effort will, be made
by the Administration `'to do so."
That was the world of Sept. 1,
1939. On Sept. 1, 1941, the scene
is vastly changed. The New York
Times says, "This is a war that
moves from one point of the com-
pass to the other like a black, <un-
tethered wind. All the belligerent
and non -belligerent Powers. have ,
tried to limit it, and their, -effort's
have been defeated by the' very
nature of the struggle.
Hitler sought desperately to con-
tain it within set bounds, hut every',
dam he erected burst in process of
construction and added to the force
of the flood that drove him on and
on.
The British tried to hold`..it to
the seas; the Atlantic and 'the
Mediterranean area their chosen
battlefields.
Russia strove to build -walls
against it in the East and in < the
West.
By pacts with Berlin and -Mae--
cow Japan attempted to fend ofe
attacks in two directions while si:e°. •;
advanced in another.
Before and since the fighting.'`
started the United States has act
ed time and again to localize the
conflict.
But the storm sweeps on with a
certain inevitability. -No tower has
yet proved strong enough to wage
this battle on its own terinee either
of time or place. The first World.
War had fixed boundaries;' this was
jumps frontiers and oceans,' not
simply because it is fought in the
sky or with mechanized forces, but
because it is more universal It
literally shakes the central pillars
and the farthest outposts of •the
whole world.
The fighting that flooded the
plains of Poland on Sept, 1, 1939,
has poured across Europe, Swept
into Africa and Asia, until last
week it engulfed the remote and
dusty plateau of Iran. More , than
a score of nations have been in-
volved in hostilities'=almost as
many as the greatest number lock.
ed in the 1914-18 struggle. Those
still nominally neutral, like' the
United States and Japan, have an
increasingly vital stake in the out-
come. More than a dozen cbun-
.tries have lost their sovereignty to
Nazi military might—and within
them walks the specter of hunger,
unrest and revolt. Cities have been
shattered by attack from the air,
'prosperous countrysides laid waste.
Ocean -borne ocnunerce has been
disrupted by blockade and counter -
blockade on the high seas. Un-
counted millions of fighting men
and civilians have perished or suf-
fered injury, the slaughter reach-
ing a crescendo in the colossal
battle of Russia.
The Red Army, though beaten
back and severely punished, has
taken a heavy toll of the Nazi war ,
machine, casting dolrbts on its re-
putation for invincibility, The Roy.
al Navy and the R. A, E'. have
gained the upper }and in the wat-
ers of the Atlantic and in the air
over Western Europe, Great form-
ations of bomber's and fighters
roar .over southern England just
es they did in the Battle of 13re
tarn a year ago, But what an in-
describable difference it makes to
life in Britain that today they're
British planes going toward Ger-
many instead of Nazi planes at-
tacking Britain,
Hitler was impelled to strike
East by his inability to end the
conflict on ally of the existing
fronts. The Nazi advance to the
Black Sea is preliminary to a drive
on the Caucasus. The Germans are
still a long' way from the oil fields
and the back door to the East.
At the moment they are blocked
in Iran by the occupation of that
country by British and Russian
troops. The new ferry route from
South America, to Africa is the
supply line for the most important
of the new battlefields."
In his Labor Day broadcast
President Roosevelt pledged him-
self and the people of his country
to do everything in their power "to
crush Hitler and his Nazi forces."
Prime Minister Churchill, broad-
casting from England after his
return from the Atlantic Confer-
ence, declared that Japan's south-
ward expansion "has got to stop."
He said that the United States
was "laboring with infinite pa-
tiende to arrive at a fair and am-
icable settlement" with Japan and
added that if negotiations failed
"we shall of course, range our-
selves unhesitatingly at the side
of the United States."
At the close of the •second year
of this war "the mighty conflict
le not yet spent and the decision
still hangs in the balance."
SCOUTING
•
• • 1
As their contribution to the local
salvage • campaign, Boy Scouts of
Keewatin, Ont., have been concen-
trating on a single salvage item
each month. In April they collect-
. ed waste paper to the value of $32,
in May rags worth $61 and in June
metals that brought $67.
* * *
o VA G ,kvirgs,-a,uth ikm m a
During an evening aluminum
salvage parade at Moncton, N.B.,
the Boy Scouts gathered pots and
pans left by citizens at the ;street
corners.
* * •
• Saint John N.B., Boy Scouts
Made a collection of 10,000 coat -
'hangers, at the request of Lieu-
tenant-Colonel C. Graham, Secret -
44;17 of the Y. M. C. A. War Ser-
vices. The hangers will assist the
troops at the various training
centres 'of M.D. No. 7 to keep their
uniforms tidy.
* * •
The country -wide salvage cam-
paign has produced many oddities.
'Undoubtedly the prize goes to an
ancient hearse, which was turned
over to the Boy Scouts of Ottawa.
It was pulled out of retirement by
a six -boy team of Scouts, and
created something of a sensation
as it was pulled through the
streets. In demonstration of Scout
ingenuity, two of its wheels are
again rolling usefully, and pre-
sumably more happily, beneath a
Scout salvage -collecting trek -cart.
* * *
Canadian Boy Scouts are con-
tributing regularly to a fund, the
"B. -P. Chins Up Fund," for the
benefit of Scout war sufferers in
Britain. In part the money is used
to maintain rest camps for Scouts
who have been rendering heroic
service in the bombed centres. Two
of the biggest camps are located
In North Wales and Oxfordshire.
One Scout, who had been awarded
the - Silver Cross for Gallantry in
fire -fighting during the Londou
raids, wrote from the camp in the
Welsh mountains telling of his en•
joyment of sun-bathing in the long
grass, swimming twice a clay in
the pool, boating, hiking over the
heather covered slopes and wood-
ed valleys, meals under the shade
of a tree and sleeping under the
stars in absolute peace and quiet,
The greatest luxury of the camp
was the thought that he could
sleep undisturbed throughout each
night — not to be awakened with
the whisper, "It's your turn for
fire -watch," or "Come on, there
goes 'Moaning Minute'." And how
good it was to see people walking
about without tin hats!
✓ OICE
OF THE
P RESS
SIX -MONTHS WAR
An amazing number of people
have been going about Ottawa in
recent days saying that the war
is going to be "over in six months,"
'Why these people think and say
such a thing we don't know, We
think it is precisely the thing Hit-
ler and Goebbels would like us to
say and think. It fits in .exactly
with their hope that we will slack-
en our efforts.
Talk about the war ending in
six months is nonsense; danger-
ous nonsense. This war may end
in six months; but nobody knows
that, nor has information enabling
him to say that, It might be said
just as reasonably that it will go
on for six years.
It would be better to argue six
years than six months; the first
would not be so dangerous. So we
had better stop talk that is little
more than wishful thinking when it
isn't a species of superstition.
Superstition and wishful thinking
aren't good war weapons.
—Ottawa Journal.
—V—
WHO'S CRAZY NOW?
Fashion is a funny thing.
In the days of peace, when silk
stockings were readily obtainable,
there were a myriad shades but
the most popular were those known
as flesh tints. The idea, mere men
were told, was to obtain a stock-
ing the color of flesh so that no-
body would know milady was
wearing a stocking.
Today we are at war. Silk stock-
ings threaten to become scarce.
Driven by a patriotic desire to
save silk, some young ladies are
reported to be painting their legs
to give the impression they are
wearing stockings.
The idea, we suppose, is that the
flesh inust be painted to look like
a stocking that looks like flesh,
Ladies must pardon the gentle-
men if this raises a few chuckles
from the male sex.
Owen Sound Sun -Times.
--V—
THIS SABOT -AGE
A long time now have many of
us been speculating about the de-
rivation of that overworked word
of today, "sabotage." The answer
is simply that it is Dutch for toss-
ing a monkey wrench into the
machinery. Not literally, of course,
but producing the same result.
Here's the story. A worker in a
Dutch windmill is one day sup.
posed to have become peeved at
something his boss did or did not
do. The hot-headed Hollander
yanked off one of his wooden
shoes and tossed it spitefully into
the works. And everyone knows
that a° wooden shoe is a sabot.
Hence today's favorite, sabotage.
Doubtless the Nazi overlords will
have reason to remember that
their subject Hollanders invented
the business,
—Galt Reporter.
GRACE AT IVIEAI-a
The bop -kip -and -jump tempo of
our lite today is probably the Prime
cause .at the growing neglect of
grace at meals. The taking of food
has degenerated into a rueh job in
which even rudimentary eonversa.
tion hats been displaced by speed.
Grace had been dropped as a time. .
taking episode which is all right
if you happen to think of It and,
have more minutes to spare than
usual.
Actually the need for a rush at
meals is largely imaginary and
grows out of the acceleration in
.„things generally. There are few
people who cannot afford the time
for grace, and these are days when
a little additional thought of the
Deity would be good far men's
minds.—Niagara Falls Review,
_V—
FIGHTING WITH EVERYTHING
Englishmen are leading the way
In patriotic endeavor in these
strenuous war days. Listen to the
word of Lord Dulverton of Bristol
—"Every single penny i have to
invest, I have lent to the govern-
ment , .. and I have bought only
one new suit of clothes since the
war broke .out,' Englishmen are
fighting with their money as well
as their minds and bodies.
— Chatham News.
—V—
ABOUT WHISKERS
And is Churchill less wise
because he is clean shaven? Be-
sides, he would probably burn bis
whiskers with his cigar,
—St. Thomas Times -Journal.
—V—
ODD BIRD
A lark Is something that if you
go out on you can't get up with,
— Ottawa Citizen.
Eat Sweet Corn
The English Way
London, England, newspapers
bave discorered that an intrepid
British farmer is growing 1% acres
of sweet corn, which will go on.
sale for cob eating at 15 cents per
ear, and one writer undertook to
explain it this way:
"Corn is a favorite food in
North America where it is grown
largely in the Southern States. It
is also regarded as a great delicacy
by Anglo -Indians throughout the
East.
"The cob is boiled for 15
minutes and served like a potato
in its jacket. The leaves are re-
moved, butter or margarine is
spread over the corn and it ie
sprinkled with pepper and salt.
"Then, holding it at the ends,
you nibble the corn like a rabbit,"
Welsh Amazons
For Shipyards
The government decision to
close the tinplate hills in South
Wales will transfer to war work
the most remarkable hill girls in
Britain, the 2,800 "Welsh Ama-
zons.-," any one of them can easily
pick up a hundredweight of steel
sheets. The girls probably will
go to work in shipyards.
LIFE'S LIKE THAT By Fred Neher
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"Why .. • . I didn't know you could cook! 1 1"
REG LAR FELLERS—Doggone Subtle
III FEEL LIKE A
MILLION DOLLARS
TODAY, JIMMIE---
HOW DO YOU
FEEL?
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THAT'S A SWELL
JOKE ! DIDJA
KETCH ON? WITH
MY FINGERS!
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By GENE BYRNES
YOU MUST BE AWFUL DUMB
NOT TO ' ET THAT ONE, PINHEAD!
EVEN THE DOG CAUGHT ON!
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