Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-08-23
Describes Life in
English Village
lnhobitonts Reody 70. War;
Fear Hitler Will
'Shirk Invasion

onion. The village where I am writing
Is named after that onion, now very
rare in England, but one plant comes
up every year in . gravel path beside
the vicarage. The German mind will
leap to the name Of the village -Garlick,
OF course! But 1t isn't.
On the site of the Roman detachment
camp our church was built nine CEN
turtles ago. the tower being as usual a
fort Of refuge, having no stairway in
side, but only ladder which the gar
rison could pull up when attacked On
the top was cresset for to summon
the Pensioners with their livestock, the
nave being built for defense and only
the chancel for worship. In one of my
own campaigns saw a church in use
as fort Of refuge and the clergyman
was at his lectern with tin cup, dishing
out gunpowder to the parishioners when
the alarm bell sounded and our hair was
briStles because We were going to be
scalped. Procedure is little changed in
these nine centuries. If the enemy is
seen alighting from the clouds the home
guards two sentries on the church tower
will ring up the oficer commanding by
field telephone and peal the alarm bell.
So the village becomes a place Of defense,
manned by veterans OF the last war,
the deadliest rifle shots in the world.
Our second line of defense is called
A. r. p, corps of women and men,
trained to deal swiftly with incendiary
fires, poison gas. fallen masonry. blocked
roads, fouled ground and first aid for the
wounded. Our third line of defense Is
homegrown food to relieve the ire
mendous strain upon our merchant ship
ping and escorting warships, for every
cottage in every parish has its lovely
garden, now devoted to vegetable crops.
Besides that we are helping the farmers,
we are sheltering little children from the
cities and families in refuge from the
stricken continent. The Women's Insti-
tute is busy making knitted comforts for
our fighting men. Nor Is that all our
duty, for sometimes there is a national
call to prayer and we relieve one another
at the church so that the intercession
continues from dawn to nightfaI. OF
course. the several duties fall upon the
old folk, the women and the children.
for our young men are away. A few
come home on leave and then we have
great news of high adventure. One air.
man sets out after supper to flick across
to Norway, bombing aerodromes and
hostile warships and coming back for
breakfast. A medical ofiicer was with
the army in Flanders and has gorgeous
stories of the great retreat. A subaltern
has just been to see the King, who
granted to him the Distinguished Service
Order. His platoon had been caught in
a death trap; he got them under
cover. went out into the open, shot the
enemy snipers single-handed and got his
men away without one being wounded.
So there you have the detail of an
English country village with TOO people
engaged in a great variety of services to
the state. Does it suggest enormous OFF,
cial expenditure? 1t costs the govern
ment nothing. Does it suggest a med
ding interference with our rights as
citizens? We have not even one police
man. Does it suggest terror. anxiety.
scarcity, privation, famine, impending
catastrophe? We have not noticed any,
thing of the kind. The old beer cult OF
John Bull, braggart and aggressive eX-
pressing contempt for mere foreigners.
has faded out, for really the present day
beer is too thin and too expensive to
give us inspiration. Its place has been
taken by the prayer cult, as tonic for
the nerves and something more.
Belief in miracles is common among
Englishmen because the defeat of the
Spanish Armada in 1888 and Of Ma
poleon's intended invasion in 1905 had
a miraculous element and we have our.
selves witnessed this summer the miracle
of Dunkirk. Our field army was sur
rounded by an overwhelming German
force and announced in Berlin as sur
rendered. Throughout the escape from
the coast there was a CLASSY calm so
that small boats could put out over
loaded and senior officers, who had to
wait until the last man embarked, made
their escape by swimming out to sea.
Was it then coincidence that the whole
weight of the German pursuit was dis
persed by a sudden storm, or that our
deliverance was the immediate sequel
to the national day Of prayer? If Hitler
failed to destroy us then, what chance
has he now that the scales are heavily
weighted against him? He is halted at
the climax of his amazing victories.
Union of all nations for the strategy
of defense has been staged at Panama
by q American republication the
British point of view a mere twittering
of politicians. The naval remnant of
Germany and Italian squadrons flying
for dear life while they shrek "Victory!"
cannot possibly attack these 81 Amer
lean republics while they are protected
by the British Navy, which now block
AIDES the entire Atlantic coast Of Europe.
Neither can any union for the strategy
of defense protect these republics from
the actual peril for each of them sep
arately. The remedy is not defense, but
attack and the invasion and conquest Of