Evening star., 1939-09-14
The Bulldog Spirit

OF the many miScalculations with
which Hitler embarked upon war two
weeks ago today, none is more eyre
gious than his underestimation of the
British will to fight. The Germans
undeclared war on Poland was
pivoted on the expectation, probably
sold to Der Fuehrer by Won Ribben-
trop, that, once the Polish Army was
subdued and Anglo-French inability
Immediately to rescue the eastern
ally demonstrated to the whole
world, a tired or Indifferent Britain
and France would be receptive to
"fait accompli' peace proposals.
In his second report on the war"
to Parliament yesterday, Prime Min
lister Chamberlain planted an annihi-
lating depth charge under that illu-
sion. Fresh from conference with
Premier Daladier in France, he de-
clared to cheering House of Com
mons that the western allies "are
convinced there can be no peace
until the menace of Hitlerism has
been finally removed" Thus, as Ger
many'S mechanical legionS sweep
across Poland toward the Russian
and Rumanian borderS-though War
saw is still "indomitably" held, as
Mr.. Chamberlain phrased 1.-THE
Nazis know on the highest authority
that the hope of holding their latest
booty is vain, insofar as it depends
on the expectation that the allies
will not fight to the end Public
opinion on that score, the Prime
Minister emphasized, sis completely
in accord on both sides of the
channel"
1t remains to develop whether such
assurances, comforting as far as they
60, will mollify that section of Brit
ain which, despite the censorship, is
clamoring for more forceful action
by Poland's allies before she lies
helpless at the invaders feet. Lord
Beaverbrook's Evening Standard
early this week voiced an apparently
rising tide of British discomfort over
what seems to some critics to be the
mastery inactivity" of the British
and the French armies and air forces
with respect to offensive operations
on the western front.
Probably such outbursts as the
Evening Standards also reflect pop
ular disappointment over the navy's
failure more effectively to cope with
the German submarines. These have
sunk some 100000 tons of British
shipping in fortnight. Britons OBJ
viously are waiting impatiently for
the Churchill touch" at the ad-
miralty-Waiting amid painful men,
ories of how near the U-boats came
to starving them in 1917 and 1918.
Mr.. Chamberlain admits that the
British merchant fleet has suffered
somewhat severe" losses, but enemy
submarines, he adds, "are constantly
being attacked" and successes have
been achieved" And in a quiet, but
immensely significant statement, the
Prime Minister added, practically
all German shipping has been driven
off the high seas" The effective
blockade of the Reich is at work.
The governments statement shed no
light on the reason for the continued
absence of large-scale offensive
operations by the allied air forces
beyond announcing that the Royal
Air Force already has number of
squadrons operating from French
soil"
1t has been said that the British
in war are "sloW starters, but strong
fnishers." They proved to be just
that in the World War. So far his
tory is repeating itself in Hitler's war.
But Mr.. Chamberlain's pledge that
the fight will go on until the Nazi
peril to democratic civilization is
crushed, lock, stock and barrel,
means that the bulldog spirit still
rules among the people who know
how to die, but not to surrender.