Evening star., 1939-01-13

strong Tor some time. BellacOurt'S
leaflets, the ones you drafted, have
done more there than bombs. Reedly
has fatty forbidden them and he
has five planes under arrest" -
Blank mutiny."
"At Constance. I've just got the
report of that. You know he has
always been opposed to our air
propaganda. But he has never dared
touch it before. Probably he has
some excuse. Things are different
on the right there, where the lines
bend back above the Jura. What we
call the Italian flank. These Sec
tors are more complicated Old
hatreds. There is considerable ar
tillery activity. The men can't get
near each other, and there's Italians
against our Spanish. That ugly
old feud is as biting as ever. There's
black blood there, and also near the
middle where the CZechs are up
against the Germans. Now the Eng
lish and Germans have even stopped
sniping But all that's quite
secondary. :"
Right is Secondary.
Lets look at a map"
The map was spread on the table.
These are details. The right and
its little raids and killings is, I
say, secondary. What matters is the
state of affairs on the center and
their left. There their discipline is
in such a state that their higher
command may come trotting over
to Reedly with a white flag at any
time. For all I know that may be
happening now. I told you that
was possible yesterday. but I didn't
realize it was imminent. Since then
definite may have hap
pened. Something very definite.
Reedly centainly didn't expect
snap to come so soon Nobody ex-
pected 1t so soon. l didn't. He's a
great commanding figure is Marshal
Reedly, and when he says a thing
has to happen, that is the ap-
pointed time. Maybe it's got some
thing to do with the food break
down. Maybe some quite small
regimental affair has started an
avalanche. Maybe they're shooting
their officers like the Russians did
in IT Maybe they're fighting
among themselves. But you see,
whatever he's been getting ready
In the way of a mine under our
feet, is going to be let off-sooner
than was expected-in a day or
so g. {. Or earlier. These post
cards.
You're listening in everywhere"
Il could tale unfold. But I
spart you. I've got it pretty clear;
trust me. I join my stats. The
idea always has been to stage an
armistice at the front without con-
sulting you, and to proclaim world
federation and the end Of the war
straight away. And that's what
they seem to be doing now. In a
rush"
"Reedly as Jove?"
Descending upon an exhausted
Europa in cloud Of postcards.
Sorry! I'm afraid I'm mixing the
ladies'"
Will Seize Airdromes.
And he means to do-what?"
He will seize the airdromes and
tackle Bellacourt. And that re-
minds me of another thing about
this sudden precipitance. Bella
court. I find, has been in Canada.
Has anything been going on in
Canada?"
You don't know that?"
mo, I didn't know that. How
could I know tiff you didn't
tell me?"
'Well-there has been"
Preparations"
"Bellacourt will fight Reedly-
yes"
Il wish had known" said Thirp,
and wished silently that sometimes
Rud would let his left hand know
what his right was doing. II wish
I had known" he repeated.
"Reedly must have heard of that"
he went on. Before I did. That
may have touched everything off.
But anyhow, he is against Bella
court. He hates Bellacourt if pos
sible more than he hates you. He's
a vain man. These last months
without any real air fighting and the
command of the air in our hands,
have made him feel ridiculous. I
think I can give a rough guess of
what he will do. In one little COM
that I happened to hear
he said-What was it?-prig- ridden
air. He'd go straight for the air
dromes and try and recover
them from the allied air con-
troll, that is to say, Bellacourt. He
will seize some of the big power
stations. I've been trying to get
all that unobtrusively policed-by
trustworthy people. He will natur-
ally denounce you for wanting to
prolong the war by holding back
the air arm.
Saved in Nick of Time.
Hey Presto! Civilization has
been saved in the nick of time. We
shall figure-as Reds, as world Com
enemies of religion, enemies
of patriotism. All our hard-won
respectability gone! Most of us
will be arrested
Hes got all this ready?"
Hes got it half ready. In one
way or another I've wetted lot
Of his powder. Some sort of attack
was actually brewing here, there's
some army diehards professedly on
leave in Amsterdam. Maybe they
meant to raid us here. But I've
scotched that for the moment, I
think, by bringing in about a thou
sand-nearly a thousand-of my
own youngsters. From London. -"
Well, anyhow, they'll be here this
afternoon. He's had about three