Evening star., 1941-09-14
But Mr.. Ferris
Stands Pat
On Aye Side
BY John Ferris.


NEW YORK.
On June 4. 1910, Prime Minister
Winston Churchill rose in the House
of Commons to give his fellow
countrymen a report on the war.
Paris had been bombed the day
before, and the horror and the glory
of Dunkerque were in every ones
mind. A British army of 1886 900
men, forced to the Channel beaches
by the Belgian surrender, the un-
believably swift German advance
and the rapid deterioration of Allied
defenses, had somehow been mirac-
ulouSly saved.
Now the gallant rescue, which per-
hapS more than anything else in
that dreadful summer of 1910 re-
vealed the unity and courage of the
British people. has reached Broad
way as one OF the fine episodes in
The Wookey," The Frederick HaZ-
lit Brennan play presented We'd
nesday night at the Plymouth Thea
ter by Edgar SelWyn.
The Wookey," the name given by
lllS llClSIlbOlD uilsi II W y
Horace Wookey, resident of Lon
don's squalid East End tugboat
owner and captain, is one OF the
most attractive characters to reach
Broadway in many months. even
though he is at times little bit too
much on the theatrical side.
Loquacious when he deems his
words important, tough of body and
spirit, eXpanSively independent, he
suffers no interference when he has
taken firm stand. whether it be in
family or government matters. AS
the play opens he is fed to the teeth
with the British governments fab
by attitude toward Hitler, and the
beginning OF the war merely hard
ems his determination to remain
aloof from such blarSted miShan-
died and misdirected business.
And SO he stood until that day
when the men stood at Dunkerque,
and a nation of shopkeeperS, horri-
fed by the news, set out in a thou
sand craft of all kinds to bring the
men home.
The Wookey continues to be aloof
until his sister-ln-laW informs him
that her husband is at Dunkerque.
Would he go? Would he! The
Wookey's fight with the government
can wait. He is off-to make IT
trips across the Channel, finally
towing in a crippled destroyer. only
to find his tug. superstructure sieved
by machine-gun bullets, libeled for
gasoline and oil bill
A weaker man would have been
diSmayed. The Wookey, being tough
and cockney as we'll as English, sits
down to write letter to Churchill,
debating to his daughter, Primrose.
Near the end of the letter there is a
Nazi air raid. An incendiary bomb
pops through the window of the
parlor And the Wookey winds up
his letter of complaint by offering
his services to the government as
an afraid precautions warden.
After the thunderous effects of
the raid-the first scene in the third
act-the play bogs down for a while
in too much talk, finally ending
with the Wookey's son and daughter
being packed off to the country
and the Wookey grabbing his he'll
met as an alert screams and the
voice of a German radio announcer
roars out Hitlers warnings to the
British people to submit.
There seems little doubt that
The Wookey" will have a success
full run. 1t is a play which makes
"our side" look good. even though
some of the dialogue in the final
scene becomes slightly tiresome
Mr.. Brennan wisely has made the
Wookey a severe critic of his gov
errlment, a believer in free speech.
And this takes away some of the
curse of that British custom of un-
reinstatement. of close -mouthed
bravery which some one has called
form of boasting in itself.