Evening star., 1941-03-01
7. BRITAIN'S ALTERNATIVES
BY LELAND STOWE.

VI. BRITAIN'S ALTERNATIVES
BY LELAND STOWE.
She really saved my life on the
homestretch. To look at her, you'd
never think it because she wasn't
very big. But she had all kinds Of
courage and as travelling compan-
ion under wartime conditions she
was the tops. I know because we
put in a solid week together, ng-
tagging from a Gold Coast port up
to Sierra Leone, West Africa.
Nothing seemed to feaze that girl
and she had wonderful name, too.
1t fitted her just like Ginger fits
Rogers. It's a darn shame not to
be able to tell you-but you know.
All this wartime secrecy. She was
little British cargo boat and I'd
like for her to live a long, long
time.
That little ship deserves to live
anywhere from l to 100 years
longer than Adolf Hitler, because
Adolf keeps cunning for her and
she never gets chance to shoot
back. She taught me what the black
out is like at sea and in the seven
days of our partnership I got to
know her captain and crew pretty
well. Sometimes they are away
from England for two or three
months at a stretch. running the
gauntlet of Nazi U-boats, picking up
all kinds of cargo-Sometimes in
fammable cargo like we had-and
then racing for home with squad
rons OF German diVe-bombers to
dodge on the final lap.
Nobody writes very much about
Britain's merchant marine, nor
about those of the Norwegians and
the Dutch and the other sailors
whove stood by. But these are the
ships and these are the men who
are fighting one of the bitterest and
most important battles of the war.
Their men don't wear the kind of
uniforms that women turn around
and look at. Just the same, if Brit
ain and her Allies win, the crews of
the cargo boats will have made it
possible. My ship was one of the
small and one of the great. Every
time her crew gets home again they
don't know whether they find any,
thing but rubble of ashes and
bricks where they left their houses.
Until they get back and walk up
the street, they never know whether
the missus and the kids will be
there-or whether there have been
funerals in the family.
Skipper Like Will Rogers.
We may as we'll call her the
Dauntless Mary for, heaven knows.
she is all of that. Her skipper is
a mountain of Yorkshireman with
jaw that's blood brother to
Winston's Churchill's. When he
talked about the home front the
shippers voice, accent and all. was
the voice of England. After all the
years that I've hated British upper
class snobbery and denounced the
blindness of British governments
and the months that I have rallied
against Neville Chamberlain, lust
to hear the skipper talk was like
hearing Will Rogers suddenly speak
above the acrimony of an American
presidential campaign. The skipper
was like Will Rogers. He belonged
to his own earth.
They'll never break us with their
bombs" the skipper used to say.
We're goin' to beat Hitler. Wen
beat i'm if it takes 10 years. I tell
you, the people of England ave set
their teeth to it. You ought to
see my old woman. She's m-a-d!"
You could talk with any man
on the Dauntless Mary and you
heard the same story There was
no doubt, either in their eyes or
their bones. Now they were home
ward bound. They we're going home
to the bombings and they could
scarcely wait to get back I had
seen British flyers in Greece and
Albania, known them and lived with
them. I had seen British troops
in Egypt and West Africa. These
were not the confused, half-awak-
ened, leaderless people I had seen
in England during the first three
months of the war. These were
people who had the great decision
far behind them. Now they all
know, men and women and chill
dren, that they are going to fight
to the end. Do you imagine that
every German, Nazi or anti-Nazi,
knows and feels the same thing
with the same intensity? I do not
believe it and I have had no first
hand reports from inside Germany
to encourage a belief to the con-
trary.
Morale Highly Important.
In any case, 1t is idle to discuss
Britain's position in this war unless
you recognize clearly that modern
wars, more than any of the past,
are decided In great measure by
fighting hearts and civilian morale.
That is why Finland is still an
independent nation despite the ter
rifle odds which she faced. The
Firms lost first round, but they
won far more than the Russians
did-and they are still free. The
British have the same kind of fight
ing hearts, but they live on an
island and they have a powerful
navy and a magnificent air force
and time and circumstance with
which to harden an army of several
million men.
When you consider the situation
of Great Britain, today, 1t is nec-
essary to bear these factors In mind.
The British only started to fight
last June. when France capitulated
The German people have been at
war for eight years, but the British
have been at war for only eight
months. Everybody knows what Sc
we're handicaps this late start has
imposed upon the British. It seems,
however, that comparatively few
people look to see the compensating
advantages which the British are
reaping, with constantly increasing
measure, every month. The smash
ing victories in Libya have been
20 striking that we all had TO zee