PEOPLE AND THINGS
By HAROLD NICOLSON
y HAVE found it sad, during the past days, to observe so I many men of property writhing and wriggling in the net of circumstance. No metaphors can be too mixed for The condemnation of all timid stock-holders. Possessed of backbone as insignificant as that thin membrane which integrates the fruit, not of the Homo Sapiens, but of the Musa Sapientum, or common banana ; of vertebrae, in com- parison to which those of Sir John Simon are cogs of stain- less steel ; they flounder miserably in their slough of despond, clutching, not at straws only, but at frogs and toads. " Surely," they gasp, " a man of M. Georges Bonnet's in- finite resource should be able to induce Laval to induce Mussolini to be merciful unto us? " " Surely the Fiihrer was speaking no less than the truth when he announced at Memel that Germany had almost come to the end of her depreda- tions? " " Surely the Rumanian Trade Treaty (in spite of anything which the war-mongers of the Board of Trade may say) represents a welcome advance along the path of appease- ment? " " Surely, the fact that the Crown. Prince of Italy was so polite the other day to the French Ambassador indi- cates that we have nothing more (in spite of Mussolini's speech on Sunday) to fear from the Rome-Berlin axis? " * * * *
Previous page
