Note on 'Sport'

What's sport?

This idea of it was written by a young warrior,
son of a ruler, who describes his experiences in war,
which he calls "magnificent sport." Here are his
narratives of two attacks from the air:

"We arrived upon them (the enemy cavalry)
unobserved and immediately dropped our loads of
explosives. I remember that one group of horse-
men gave me the impression of a budding rose as
the bombs fell in their midst. It was exceptionally
good fun."

The other describes an air raid on a village:

"This was swell and a tragic but beautiful effect.
Our best fun was trying to hit a large hut which
stood in the middle of the town. I had to fly over
it three times to make it. The third time I hit it
and saw it begin to burn. Ethiopians leaped out
and tried to escape. We started enough fire to heat
half the globe."

* * *

In case you haven't recognized them, the quota-
tions above are taken from a new book by Il Duce's
son, Vittorio Mussolini, describing his experiences
in the Ethiopian war.

The World War, terrible as were its psychological effects, produced no survivor on either side who published a book glorifying the killing or extolling its "beauty."

Young Mussolini's book is the best available
example of what Fascism does to the minds of
those infected by its propaganda.

Voices for Peace—III

(Continued From Page 1, Col. 8)

"If we have war and all is ruined," he said, "what other conclusion can the survivors reach than what we have done is all wrong.

"If you were a survivor of such a cataclysm and you were shown a motion picture of the New York skyline which lay about you in a heap of rubble, would you want to read books—if any remained—of the civilization which brought us to this point?

"You would have no use for such records," he said, "you would go back to basic principles."

Mr. Taylor straightened himself in his chair and pounded his fist into the palm of his hand.

"If every American was absolutely dedicated to the political party in power but to America and the basic principles it represents as being free from restrictions on the rights of an individual: if every American was passionately determined that everyone should have the freedom that I personally enjoy; and if he believed that it is a freedom that everybody in the world ought to have, you would get it across a lot faster."

"You would get it across a lot faster," he said, "if Americans would stop long enough to evaluate what they do have in the basic principles they now take for granted every blessed day of their lives."

"But this is difficult," he said, "it is difficult for someone born in this country to have any idea of anyone else having even a little bit less freedom than we have."

"It is not enough to say to the world that every free-born American has the opportunity of becoming President of the United States: it is not enough to say that everyone can own his own business, and be his own boss...."

"We," he said, "and I mean the whole Western world, and particularly the United States, have held up the prize and made the prize the all important thing instead of the opportunity to go through the business of winning the prize."

Mr. Taylor said the tennis cup has become more important than the game.

"It is even true in baseball," he said, "the pennant means more than the way the game is played to win the thing."

He criticized our educational system for "much the same thing."

"We struggle for the diploma," he said, "and put all our efforts into winning it instead of realizing that the process of education is to make us think."

He said that the prize "has become the objective rather than living the basic fundamental principles that go into making up that prize."

"It is not enough to win freedom," he said, "you must continue to cherish it as much after you become freedom's champion as you cherished it before. The same fundamental principles that enabled you to achieve freedom must be followed if you are to remain free."

"This is the case with America today," he said, "we are the champions; we have reached our goal through the use of the basic fundamental principles contained in the Constitution and we must continue to adhere to them if we are to maintain our role as champion."

"It is only through the effective use of these basic principles that we will be able to lead the world in a quest for peace."

And within a mile or two, Japanese peasants and Chinese coolies, who don't know what it's all about, are dying and lying mutilated in the mud because a slight little man in a palace in the midst of Tokyo has decided to "make China reflect upon its attitude." Or, rather, the slight little man's militaristic statesmen have decided for him.

To interpret the Japanese cause to the world, millions of words are poured out. The Chinese say little, print less.

The Japanese are bound, by the heavily dictum of Hirohito, their emperor-god, to the notion that "China, having failed utterly to understand the true intentions of our empire, indulged in willful acts of provocation. This," says Hirohito, "is indeed a source of regret to us."

It is also a source of regret to the Chinese, whose simple position is that their country has been ruthlessly invaded, their open cities bombed, their fishing fleets sunk, their trade-routes blockaded, because they preferred to operate their own form of government and exploit their own country without guidance from the Japanese empire.

## Japan Speaks Plainly

While most Japanese apologists strike a high moral note and talk affrightedly about the red menace in China, the realistic and official Foreign Policy Association of Japan is frank:

"The Japanese are destined to extend their sphere of activity on the mainland of Asia, since it has been proved impossible for them to confine their surplus energy to a chain of islands whose limited area has been exploited to the utmost both agriculturally and industrially. Hence it is up to the statesmen of Japan and China to find ways and means to enable such development to take place.

"Such ways and means should be constructive, not destructive. The present situation is the result not so much of the failure of the governments of both countries to find them, as the refusal on the part of China to recognize the inevitability of Japan's unfortunate dilemma—that of either suffocating in the Island Empire or else expanding on the continent.

"Japan," says the manifesto, "was dragged unprepared into hostile combat..."

Around the perimeter of the settlement—or such part of the settlement as the Japanese still allow foreigners to use—are stationed American, French, British and Italian troops, facing outward. The rim of the foreign colony is dotted with sandbag redoubts and machine-gun emplacements. At downtown intersections are more sandbag re-