Evening star., 1939-12-14
U. 5. Reporter Finds
The Real Meaninq
OF Frontiers
He Discovers Thot They
Are Places Where
Wars Break Out
BY ROBERT ]. CASEY,

okLOoOEAAO, ociSluul 10Y SAlP-
per).-A German patrol in battle
array-side arms, fixed bayonets
gas masks, wire cutters, hand
grenades-and a Belgian patrol SIM
ilarly accoutered studied each other
alphabetically from a distance OF
about feet.
Bad weather." said the German
corporal, just to make conversation.
Never anything else said the
Belgian corporal. InaSmuch as the
German spoke German and the Bel
Rian answered in French, 1t Is quite
likely that they didn't understand
each other and that the Belgian was
guessing what the German had said.
But no matter. The tone of the
dialogue, a little coy, but not un-
friendly, was obvious.
"Au revoir," said the Belgian.
And the two squads who may be
at each others throatS before fast
linotyper can get this into type
continued their rounds through the
mud.
Thereupon it occurred to one, a
little belatedly, that hundreds OF
thousands of expensive words have
been sent out of this war to Amer
lea to date with reference to FROM
tiers, all of them expanding the
thesis that Americans have con-
ception of what a frontier really Is.
Searching ones own experience, one
reaches the concluSion-alSo be-
latedly-that they don't.
Frontiers in the United States.
There was a London correspond
ent at Remich, Luxembourg, man
of excellent education and back
ground, who unconsciously brought
home to one the dire loss that the
United States has suffered in this
regard.
Don't you need passports in the
states?" he inquired.
What for?" was the obvious re-
sponse.
We'll" he went on, when you
drive an automobile from New York
to St. Louis you 60 through half a
dozen States, don't you?-Well then,
what do you do when you cross the
frontiers?"
There one had 1.-THE frontiers.
The matter took some explaining.
Pennsylvania was sovereign State,
wasn't it. And Ohio was a soy
ereign State and Indiana and Illi-
nois and Missouri? How did they
keep track Of motor traffic across
their territory without passport ex-
animation? How did they collect
their customs? How could the au-
thorities of Wisconsin, for instance,
be sure that somebody from Illinois
wouldn't just move in and stay
there?
No Triptyque Needed.
One leaps too quickly to the con-
clusion that this man was ignorant.
He wasn't at all. 1t was merely
that some 10 years of travel back
and forth across Europe had made
1t seem fantastic that anyone might
travel 1000 miles without being
stopped by border guards every 200
miles. One didn't even need a
triptyque for ones automobiles
guarantee that it would be taken
back to the State whence it had
come? Amazing, perfectly amazing.
All Of this brought home to one
that travel in the United States is
conducted at low nuisance-level, but
it made one think. Very few Amer
leans know any more about inter-
national borders than this English
man knew about State lines.
If we think about frontiers at
all we build up mental pictures of
the Great Chinese Wall or natural
barriers of tall mountains and broad
rivers. Even if we are experienced
we think of wartime frontier as a
mess of barbed wire and fortifica-
tions. That some frontiers are pre-
cisely that makes our understand
ing of the situation no more simple.
In any event not even the most
imaginative of us could visualize a
wartime border that consisted mere
ly of a white line down the middle
Of a motor highway.
HOnOr Oh VuStOInS 6CItlCCs
You come upon this phenomenon
at Losheimergraben north of the
Luxembourg border where a Ger
man town has had to bring itself
Up short to keep from falling into
Belgium. The road has been kept
up by international agreement with
black-top pavement on one side OF
it and brick on the other. The
honor of the customs service has
been maintained by brace of Off
GERS in little coops where side
road goes into the town.
Perhaps things are different now
. they change overnight in this
vicinity and barriers and mines have
caused the diversion of motor traf-
fic to points well behind what, in
matter of hours, may be the front
line. But this haphazard arrange
ment had worked for 20 years when
the notifications began on Septem-
ber S. 1t was still going on when
German concentrations along this
front began to worry the Belgians
and armed men came to glover at
each other across the white line.
You got to this interesting Sec
ton almost without knowing it, but
you were speedily informed. The
patrols might put on show of
friendliness. The permanent SEN
tries who had to look at each others
faces all day long wasted no time on
amenities.
Nazi Panied, Angry.
"Drive on the left-hand side OF
the road" ordered the Belgian,