MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON
D ASSENGERS by R.A.F. Transport Command are provided in
advance with an illustrated booklet couched in endearing terms. This slim little volume is designed to prepare the traveller for the cruelties and humiliations which are about to be imposed upon him. He is warned that the war, in so far as individuals are concerned, is still thoroughly on ; he is reminded that the days of luxury are still far distant and that he must brace himself to what, with outrageous euphemism, is described as "austerity travel "; and he is exhorted in unctuous terms to regard Transport Command, not as his persecutor, but as his loving friend. It is evident that this pamphlet is designed to create among the passengers a boy- scout feeling and to inspire them with that team spirit which can alone enable them to face the ardours upon which they are engaged. The convivial tone of this exhortation does in fact create a com- munity spirit which carries the passengers through the first three or four days of frustration. But as fruitless dawn succeeds to fruitless dawn the team spirit wears thinner and thinner, and the passengers come to realise that they are regarded by their tormentors, not as a team, but as a chain-gang. The plaint rises to heaven from the aerodromes and the attendant internment camps of Europe, Asia and Africa that never in the long history of human transport has so much unnecessary suffering been imposed upon so many by so few.
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