We have probably got fairly well out of the "
it can't happen here " frame of mind by this time, but there are some distaste- ful lessons still to be learned. About Fifth-Column activities, for example. How any Briton could be willing to lift half a finger to forward the criminal aims of the Nazis is incomprehensible to any normally-constituted human being, but reports of cases in the courts make it clear that such monstrosities of tempera- ment do exist. Something I have just heard of in another field is hardly less deplorable. Could the " beatings-up " that have become an essential manifestation of Nazi brutality at home happen here? Unfortunately there is good reason to think they could. When Italy declared war last week an elderly Italian tradesman in a good way of business, who has lived in England forty years and has two sons serving in the British army, was dragged out of his shop and set on by a mob of roughs. He has since had an eye removed in consequence. His com- ment is " People are very kind in pitying me, but they needn't. I'm not pitying myself. Much worse things than this are hap- pening to men at the front. England has been very kind to me for forty years ; I'm not going to be bitter about her now."
Previous page
