South Yorkshire Times, May 6th, 1944
Neutrality
Neutrality is not an absolute state. It has infinite variety. The war has gone on long enough to demonstrate this beyond question, and diplomacy continues to weave its tortuous web, even though its foundation of international law has been so sadly undermined.
Holland, Denmark, Norway, and the Balkan countries long ago discovered the realities about neutrality. Within the German conception of total war neutrality is dependent largely on consideration of geography and strategy. These small nations have paid a bitter price for their initial blindness. Overwhelmed before they could strike a blow in their defence for the most part, they now live for the day of reckoning, a day which partisan armies eagerly seek to anticipate. As for the remaining neutrals, they are possessed of sufficient realism to understand very well that they have continued to enjoy this status in a war-torn world. Because at the material times they had not the misfortune to stand in the path of the Nazi juggernaut. Sweden, precariously deemed discretion the better part of valour when her Scandinavian brothers were being treacherously betrayed and butchered just across the border in Norway. Spain, Portgual and Turkey, with a circumspection worthy of Brer Rabbit, also lay low and said nothing when Hitler’s armies were tearing all opposition to pieces. When Britain stood alone, a fact about which Mr. Churchill frequently reminds the world at large, even the friendliest of these neutrals ventured little more than a murmur of admiration. Their sentiments might be compared with those of the French General who, watching the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, is reputed to have exclaimed: “C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre.” The Battle of Britain was certainly magnificent even though it did not accord with the traditional conception of warfare between ill-matched adversaries. While all the world wondered, Britain saved herself and all the other freedom-loving peoples, including those of the neutral countries.
There have been many adjustments since the days of Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain. We have won many friends and now the respectability of the Democratic cause is being acknowledged, even in Fascist Spain. This week’s diplomatic success over the question of Spanish supplies of wolfram to the Nazis, and the game of espionage which the Germans have been so industriously carrying on under General franco’s wing, is a tacit reinsurance which will hardly encourage the German fortress troops in their anxious vigil. The concession comes tardily and with not too good a grace, representing rather a need for oil than a conversion to liberalism. These, however, are niceties which do not matter now, though we shall not forget them later. Portugal continues to trade with Germany in vital war commodities, though she has handsomely compensated for this inconsistency by allowing the Allies the use of her valuable Atlantic bases. Turkey still enjoys the best of both worlds, and the operation of her treaty with Britain does not seem to have left us greatly in her debt. Switzerland’s position is less ambiguous and her attitude more comprehensible. Happily, the cause of freedom has not lacked doughty champions, great and small, and Europe in particular has reason to be thankful for them. Nor will the people of her prostrate nations forget those who passed by on the other side.