Evening star., 1938-12-18

The reviewer hastens to add, how
| ever, that she valves the clothing
and cosmetic allowance. It is, as
she said, a handsome offer. But
somehow. she IS unwilling to allow
the Army to ration on her powder.
She is afraid that they would say
two rounds a day was sufficient, or
something similarly trajectory-wise.
She will just muddle along as she
has been doing. But many thanks,
just the same.
In the December issue of Globe
Sisley Huddleston, foreign corre-
spondent and author of the recently
published book of memoirs, In My
Time" makes the charge that cor
respondents generally are RESPONSE
BILE for much OF the war spirit abroad
in the world today. This is inter-
esting, since it would seem to be a
tip from the horses own mouth.
who Wants WARP" and answers
the question by saying that no.
body wants it but adds that some
groups and individuals who are most
vocal for peace are misguidedly en-
dangering the pacifist cause by
their utterances. These groups and
| persons, he says, are more of a
menace than are the dictators, none
of whom are anxious for a conflict.
Paradoxically, he points out, 1t is
the enemies of the relationships who
do most to keep warlike feelings
alive, for by their attacks on those
governments they create parties and
cliques which are avowedly dedicated
to peace but are actually more in
terested in hatred. Such parties
want peace, but they want just as
strongly, or even more so, to have
the relationships destroyed This is
the point Mr.. Huddleston makes,
and certainly there Is much evidence
to support it,
"The reason" he says, "is that
ideology' has been injected into
these problems. Hitler and Musso-
lini are nti-Bolshevik' while the
Left in the democratic countries is
'anti-FaScist' 'anti-Bolshe-
vism' and 'anti-Fascism' have grown
at amazing speed until today there
are few people in Europe who car
see and think straight. They arc
fanatically White or furiously Red
The reviewer would point out he. {
that the motivating emotion Of bot
parties is, in Mr. Huddlestons ir-
depreciation, anti" or negative:
that both Whites and Reds seem
care more about exterminating the
opposites than about evolving ar
constructive peace plan themselve
And each holds up the accusing fir
ger and cries War maker!" at t.
other.
Mr.. Huddleston continues, hov
ever, that Of the two the Reds ses'
to him the more anxious for w
And that is where he brings in Il
guilt Of the newspaper corresporc
ents.
Perhaps they Ohe Reds) do nc
consciously want war" he write
but they certainly do their best
provoke it. 1t is an unfortunate fa|
that large proportion OF the newc-
paper correspondents in Europe have
gone Red, and have swallowed ever
falsehood put forward by the pre-
fessional propagandists. . There
can be no doubt whatever Of the
vindictive manufacture Of stories
calculated to produce war. And l
affirm emphatically that the vast
majority. Of these manufactured
stories were eagerly seized upon BY
foreign correspondents who had
turned rabidly Red. They no longer
tried to hold the balances even. We
heard, for example, ad nauseam, of
the bombings of Burgos, but not of
the bombings Of Barcelona. We were
volubly informed of the German and
Italian origin of Frances arms, but
we were not told of the origin of
Negrin's arms. Foreigners in the
International Brigade were heroes:
foreigners under Frances command
were villains. Sometimes the Inter
national Brigade was represented a
negligible-and other times it We
gloriouSly held to have saved Ma
dr1d. The maSSacres of the insul-
gents aroused deep Indignation, bu
the atrocities of the loyalists werl
ignored. -.
Never" concludes Mr.. Huddle-
ston, veteran reporter himself.
nave I seen such one-sided report
ing by men who should, by trainin,
and temperament, be utterly impair
tial and purely objective. And al
ways, whether it was intended or not.
these lies and half-truths were lia-
BILE to provoke an explosion. :" He
adds that he has no feeling about
the Spanish war whatsoever him.
self, beyond horror that such con-
f1lct can exist.
The reviewer has more than once
commented on the fact that much
Of the outcry against the Fascists
seemed to her to be raised in the
interest OF their political opposites
by those oppoSites, and has said
that, in her opinion, 1t was regret
tably impossible to accept many of
the criers-to-heaven as sincere. She
has based this belief on no more
than an expert ear for the language;
the passionate uproar Of the anti
Fascist denouncers Of war has SIM
ply not rung true. 1t has been SO
much more anti-Fascist than anti
war! 1t has had clearly detectable
the clatter Of the professional ideal
ist in it, the patter of the cause
monger, the baying of the ideology-
hound. 1t is heartening to her, both
as critic and as one devoted to
peace, to learn that so experienced
q writer as Mr.. Huddleston upholds
her preSentiment.