Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1939-07-20
INTERNATIONAL
NEWS REVIEW

Continued from Page ~
Italian dictator; he himself is of their
ilk.
Nervousness in London.
AT the present moment London is
the most war-scared capital in Eu-
rope. Daily dispatches indicate that
the government is in the grip of
militariStic paroxysm, and that it
seems to sense fatal danger in every
windmill, like that other Chamberlain
of long ago, Don Quixote: The twen-
ty-year old boys are called to the
colors in accordance with a new law
requiring compulsory military service;
anti-aircraft batteries form perfect
circle about London; government de-
partments are set up to gather and
store provisions for use in a period
of war emergency; 100000 hospital
beds are made ready for expected
bomb victims; an extra appropriation
of $l87 100000 is demanded to the
expansion of the air forces; the army,
navy and air budget for the current
fiscal year will, if the government
has its way, go far beyond the orig
inal estimate, and is scheduled to
attain the fantastic height of $3,416,-
DOC, OOO-most of which money has
to be borrowed, and, at some later
time, paid back by adding new tax
burdens to those already carried by
the citizens; mock warfare is being
carried on to familiariZe the English
with the dangers and the precautions
incident to ''the next war"-and so on.
Why all this-and much more-is
done, no one outside 10 Downing
street appears to know, for there is
nowhere any visible danger of war;
War is, of course, when ornaments
competitions go on, possibility, but
it is to be remembered, also, that the
country which arms the heaviest, is
likely to be the chief instigator of
such war.
Brotherly Love in Paris.
France, the ally of Great Britain,
the other day celebrated the 15Oth
anniversary of the beginning of the
great French revolution, and it was
made an occasion for demonstrating
to the world that John Bull and the
French Marianne really mean bust
ness-arm in arm. There were scores
of British military airplanes sent
across the Channel, all the way down
to Bordeaux Ga distance which cor
responds to that between London and
| BerlinD and there were ultra-modern
bombing planes flying above Paris
to awe and to inspire; in the review
ing stand with the president and the
premier of the French republic sat
the British minister for war, and
fiery words were spoken to the clink-
ing of champagne glasses
about the absolute sense of close
brotherhood now cementing the invis-
ible but very substantial bridge which
British and French diplomats and
generals have constructed across the
Channel.
Calm Danzig.
The ostentatious cause for much of
what is now going on in western
Europe is the fear that Hitler may
start war to get Danzig. There are
no indications that he will-no sign
that he dares, and Danzig itself seems
to be the calmest of all the cities in
the European area of unrest.
Early this week there were rumors
that Pope Plus XII and Mussolini
might offer mediation between Ger
many and Poland in regard to Danzig,
and that Great Britain was, in some
way, involved. But four minutes after
that rumor was heard, angry denials
were issued in London. At the same
time it was whispered that Chamber
lain himself considers the door to
direct German-Polish negotiation still
ajar, and, anyhow, even Warsaw
doesn't talk about Danzig war now.
1t seems to be tacitly taken for
granted that the city will be reunited
with Germany in Hitler's own time
and in his own way, and that it will
be done without recourse to arms.
But there has to be great deal of
| talk and much alarum first.
| Angry TOKYO.
In Japan the idea is becoming more
and more prevalent that the British
are far more sympathetic to the
Chinese than to the japanese cause;
brutal and painful expressions of
japanese hatred of the British have
been reported from the blockaded
English part of Tientsin's foreign
quarter, and just now the japanese
are about to blockade the south China
coast in an apparent effort to mini
mize British influence and to stop
British contact with the vicinity of
Hongkong.
Fifty thousand angry japanese
few days ago gathered outside the
building of the British embassy in
Tokyo, threw stones and sticks at it,