WAR IN THE EAST
IN the joint statement issued by Mr. Churchill and President Roosevelt from Quebec it was emphasised that the military dis- cussions turned very largely on the war against Japan and help for China, which, after fighting for more than six years, is in some danger of exhaustion from a prolongation of the war. The pro- portion of power which the United Nations can devote to the Pacific should have increased with the growing output of munitions and the improvement in the shipping position. Important successes, it is true, have been gained in recent months. The capture of Kiska in the Aleutian Islands by Americans and Canadians removes the threat of Japanese aggression in the extreme north and provides a valuable base for action against Japan itself. The battles in the Solomons have not only tended to secure Allied southern communications, but have inflicted heavy losses on the enemy in ships and aeroplanes. In New Guinea Australians and Americans are laboriously driving the Japanese back on their fastnesses. The immediate threat to Australia has been removed and the enemy has been forced on to the defensive. But we cannot long be content with this laborious process of ejecting him yard by yard from his positions on the islands. Help must be brought to China, and soon. The enemy must feel the weight of Allied bombers on his own soil in Japan—and it is to be hoped that the limited Strategic Air Force based on south-eastern China, of which President Roosevelt spoke last Tuesday, may be developed, though we may not yet be in a position to launch an offensive in Burma. There is much here that requires planning, and in such a way that we may be ready, on the conclusion of the war with Germany, to despatch heavy forces without delay to the Far East to help China and take the strain off Australia. The appointment of Lord Louis Mount- batten to be Supreme Allied Commander South-East Asia is con- vincing evidence that vigorous offensive action is in prospect.
Resistance in Denmark
The spirit of the people of Denmark has been turning in recent months from passive to active resistance against the German occupy- ing authorities and their agents. It has been Nazi policy in Denmark to allow a certain latitude to the Danish administration, and even to Parliament, in the hope of securing more effective collaboration and getting the utmost for the benefit of Germany from Danish agriculture and industry. But hatred has been growing against the Germans, and hope been fostered by Allied victories, and sabotage which began in a small way has now become organised in a large
way. Factories haye been blown up, railways damaged and tele- phones cut ; strikes have occurred on a large scale, and several Germans have been killed. Nor has the Danish Government adopted a compliant attitude. When the Germans demanded that Danes guilty of sabotage should be tried in German courts, the Government refused to acquiesce ; and though it issued a proclamation urging the people to abstain from violence it gave it to be understood that it would guard Danish interests. The war-work that is being done in Denmark is an important contribution to German production, and the Nazis can ill afford the slowing-up which has resulted from sabotage. Nor can Germany at this time easily afford to increase her garrisons, which she would certainly have to do if she attempted to browbeat the population as savagely as in the conquered countries. The Nazi "New Order " dangled before Denmark has been assessed at its true worth. Germany is not skilful at appeasement, but to have to resort to force everywhere is expensive.
Himmler Omnipotent
Heinrich Himmler, already leader of the S.S. and chief of the Gestapo, and by far the most powerful man in Germany next to Hitler himself, has now been given yet wider powers, becoming Minister of the Interior and general plenipotentiary for the Reich Administration. This last post gives him control of the whole Civil Service. There is thus introduced into a key office in the adminis- tration a man who directs and inspires the most ruthless police system in the world and a force which is in effect a private army of fanatical Nazis. It is likely that the person who really appointed Himmler is Himmler himself, just as in Italy Mussolini chose to concentrate many offices in his own person. His appearance in this new role indicates that the German nation as a whole is to be sub- jected to a course of discipline and dragooning after the heart of the most cynical and savage of all the Nazis—and that a situation exists which makes such discipline necessary. It is ingenuously pointed out by Berlin radio that the S.S. led by Himmler has always dis- played a "great cultural activity." The time for more cultural activity has obviously come—for suppressing doubters, for checking defeatism by a free use of the concentration camp and the torture chamber, for establishing a frame of mind which will be more in- fluenced by terror of Himmler than by terror of bombs and invading armies. Goebbels has tried the policy of offering sympathy to sufferers. Himmler's medicine is likely to be different. Where the sedative has failed the purge may temporarily succeed.
Leaders in Liberated Countries
Emphasis cannot be laid too strongly on the words used by Sir Stafford Cripps last Sunday, when he said that nothing must be done in defeated or liberated countries to prevent their people from choosing as their future leaders men who have opposed Fascism and Nazism. A tremendous responsibility rests on the United Nations, for in the near future they will be entering as conquerors enemy or enemy-occupied countries, as they have already entered Sicily, and they have to beware lest, in the improvisations of military rule, they should commit themselves to the support of the wrong people. There will not be lacking men, of whom Badoglio may be one, ready and willing to step into the shoes of • the late dictator- governments and come to terms with us, or " surrender uncondi- tionally," in the hope that they may keep the reins of office. There will be people' of the Quisling class who may make out a case for themselves. The danger will lie in the fact that military respon- sibilities will remain long after surrender and occupation, and accommodation arrangements may be hurriedly made before it has been possible to ascertain the will of the people. It will be the duty of the United Nations to provide that any temporary administrations that may be formed under their aegis do not in any way frustrate our democratic purpose, which is to enable peoples to have govern- ments chosen by themselves. That involves, of course, freedom to choose a system of government that is not democratic.
Mr. Curtin's Triumph
In the Australian General Election a sweeping victory has been won by Mr. Curtin and the Labour Government. Though the full details of the results will not be known for another week or more, it is already established that the Government will have a large majority over all parties in the House of Representatives, and, what is more remarkable still, it will have a substantial majority also in the Senate when the newly elected members take their seats next year. The precarious balance on which it held power is a thing of the past, and the Labour Party can now look forward to some years of political security in which to prosecute the war with decision and face the subsequent problems of reconstruction. The vote may or may not indicate a desire on the part of the nation for party government ; it certainly does indicate a vote against the divided Opposition elements which, through their divisions, failed to inspire confidence in the electorate. But, above all, the result must be taken as showing the over-riding desire of the nation to have the, war prosecuted with the utmost vigour, and Mr. Curtin's victory is in large measure due to the fact that he has seen the country through perilous days, that he has organised the life of the nation for total war, and has now piloted it to the position where the tide has turned against the enemy. Large numbers of voters with no Labour Party allegiance voted for him, and that is read as a sign that wider issues than those of party politics have determined the result, and that much of the support given to the Government has been given to ensure the position of a strong administration capable of handling a critical situation.
India's Increasing Population
In spite of the difficulties created by the war the All India Census was taken in 1941, though some of the items recorded have had to be dropped. The report of the Commissioner, Mr. N. W. M. Yeatts, reveals trends of the greatest interest, such as the rapid increase in the population of cities, though there are still only 58 with over zoo,000 inhabitants, and the rise in various districts resulting from modern irrigation works and the provision of light and power. But the outstanding fact in the report is the immense increase in the population, and in the rate of increase. It has risen by to9,5oo,000 in the last 5o years, and by no less than 5i,000,00o in the last ten years. So rapid a rate of reproduction neutralises any in- crease there may be in the means of subsistence, and makes a general rise in the standard of living almost hopeless. The very advantages which arise from irhproved health and medical services iri this respect turn to disadvantage. It is to the credit of the administration that infant mortality and maternal mortality are reduced, and that there are far fewer deaths from cholera and plague, but it is disturb- ing to know that these improvements alone are likely to result in an addition of 70,000,000 persons to the population in the next 5o years. When it is suggested that education, by raising the standard of comfort, should tend to check this reckless reproduction, we are reminded that the figure of female literacy is only 2 per cent.—and literacy scarcely means education. This problem of excessive re- production is one of the most serious matters demanding social study.
School Fees or No Fees ?
The interim report of Lord Fleming's committee on the public schools and their relation to the reconstituted educational system of the country is an important document. It is issued because the question of the -payment of fees in a large number of such schools— the "Direct Grant" schools, which receive a per capita subvention from the Board of Education, as distinguished from " maintained" and " aided " schools, which get financial assistance from the Local Education Authority—has become an urgent problem. The Govern- ment, in the recent White Paper on Education, has announced its policy of making education in the maintained and aided schools completely free. That leaves still undecided the position in regard to the Direct Grant schools and to a limited number of the better- known public schools which receive no grant from any public funds at all. Regarding the latter the Fleming Committee has made no recommendation as yet. The opinion it now expresses—that all fees in respect of tuition (boarding-fees are left out of account) in the Direct Grant schools should go—does not help Mr. Butler much, for while eleven members of the Committee advocate the abolition of fees, seven, including the chairman of the committee, Lord Fleming, and the Bishop of London, a former headmaster of Repton, advocate their retention, on grounds which cannot be set out at length here, but which deserve full and open-minded consideration. Notable among them is the contention that " it should be open to the parents, if they are prepared to pay, to find an education for their children more suitable than that which is provided by the Local Authority in their own area." That is true, and nothing is likely to happen to prevent it happening in the case of schools, whether " public " or private, which get no help from public funds; but the argument that where there is extensive help from such sources the education should be free needs a good deal of upsetting.
Civil Service Unions
The Union of Post Office Workers has wisely decided to withdraw its application for affiliation to the Trades Union Congress, a step which threatened to embroil its members with the Government and expose them to penalties through a breach of the Trade Disputes Act. This last-minute withdrawal eases a situation which was embarrassing both to the T.U.C. and the Labour Party. It does not mean that the Union or the other Civil Service unions which have been contemplating similar action abandon their claims to become associated with the rest of the trade union movement, but that they now propose to press them in a constitutional way. It is assumed that they will drop the demand to share the political rights of other trade unions and will urge association for industrial purposes only— a suggestion put forward in the first place by representatives of the Liberal Party when they conferred with the T.U.C. The matter is one which concerns all sections of Labour, political and industrial; and for that reason a joint committee representing the T.U.C., the Labour Party, and the, Parliamentary Labour Party has been set up to find a settlement ; and so seriously was it taken by the Parlia- mentary Labour Party that it called a special meeting to discuss the question in London. Since the threat to the Government has now been withdrawn, the issue ought to be examined on its merits alone. The only reasonable objection to affiliation lay in the political functions it carried with it. If that is satisfactorily removed the claim of the unions ought to be conceded. It must be remembered that conditions of work and pay in one union are very closely bound up with those in others.
