Evening star., 1940-09-01

hurricane. Remarkable frst-hand ac-
counts have since described that unnatu-
raj calm. First the communicates had
the French holding on the Loire. Then
on the Seine. The rich and the powerful
began to leave. The Ritz was evacuated.
Wild rumors were everywhere. At press
conference Reynaud told foreign cor
respondents that the government had no
Intention of leaving Paris. The follow
ing morning disordered carvan was
bearing secretaries and records on the
long and fruitless search for a safe
capital.
France fell to pieces. A nation crum-
bled. There were predictions of revolu-
ton from the left. But a great many
of the radicals and the mass of the urban
proletariat were in occupied France under
the threat of NaI machine guns. In
unoccupied France rightists such as
Petain, Weygand and 'Laval-many of
them long sympathetic with the Fascist
Nazi concept-assembled at Vichy to put
together a government after the Nazi
model. Anti-Semitic parades began in
Paris and Jewish shop windows were
smashed as they had been smashed in
Berlin after 1888
Dunkirk Evacuation.
BY the miracle of Dunkirk the bulk
of the British forces were saved. No
one has yet told anything like the whole
of that epic. Small sloops, rowboats,
motor launches, every conceivable kind
of craft, put out from British Channel
ports to rescue troops driven actually into
the surf. If the British had not been
spurred into action for that rescue, the
war might now be over.
And at the same time the mass of the
British people rose up against the leaders
whom they blamed for the debacle.
Chamberlain and his associates were
swept out of power. fortunately the
British had hero to whom they could
turn, a hero in the mold of Drake and
Nelson. Winston Churchill, standing for
all that is British, became Prime Min
lister. Lord Beaverbrook, aggressive,
dynamic publisher of highly successful
newspapers, took over the job of STEP
ping up aircraft production and in two
months set new record. More and
more the Chamberlains were pushed into
the background with the Labor party
welding increasing power over domestic
policy.
The fall of France aroused in the
United States wave of jittery fear.
Today virtually every one is agreed on
the need for a major defense program,
although there is considerable dispute
on method. Organized labor without
exception and virtually all of the
churches have opposed the draft. There
is no substantial agreement on a plan
of defense-what shall be defended.
Fears Of War.
Perhaps never before was there such
confusion of voices. And the great
mass of the public has been fearful and
unhappy. Lately there are. indications
of fatalistic acceptance Of an inevitable
war with one or more of the totalitarian
powers. As yet, before the real engines
of propaganda have been turned on, this
is reluctant acceptance.
For the moment there is more hope
for Britain. The British figures on
plane victories and losses are seemingly
even too conservative. Again official
Washington takes heart, at the same
time afraid that this may be only an
other illusory moment of pause in the
avalanche Of events; 1910 has confounded
the seers and the prophets and no one
ventures even TO guess what le4l may
bring.