The Man who Missed the War Read Free

Philip had a very shrewd suspicion that the violent fit of coughing which ensued had really been caused by the effort of suppressing a burst of laughter. When the Canon had recovered his breath his host suggested that it was time to join the ladies.
    While they were drinking their coffee in the drawing-room, it emerged that the Canon and the Admiral had a mutual friend in the Assistant Chaplain-in-Chief to the Fleet. This led to some talk on Welfare Services in the Navy, and thence to the Canon’s own labours among the seafaring population of the neighbourhood.
    ‘It’s uphill work,’ he said, with a shake of his dark, bullet-like head. ‘There’s nothing behind us—no good solid funds to draw on. We’re entirely dependent on grants from various charities,plus what we can raise locally; and of course, both those sources vary from year to year according to the prosperity of the country.’
    ‘And I suppose it’s just when there’s a slump, and the people start cutting down their subscriptions, that you need the money most,’ remarked Captain Vaudell.
    ‘Precisely,’ agreed the Canon. ‘Having to rely on voluntary charity makes it extremely risky to launch any new undertaking and militates against the steady progress of the old ones. Really, one must confess that these things are far better managed in the Dictator countries. Mussolini has devoted millions of State money to slum clearance in these last few years, and Stalin, I’m told, has erected whole townships of convalescent and holiday homes for the Russian workers in the Crimea.’
    ‘That’s true enough,’ the Admiral nodded. ‘Look how this feller Hitler has tackled the unemployed question. There were eight million of ’em when he came to power, but he’s managed to find work for practically everyone on new roads and canals, and one thing and another.’
    ‘And in building a new Air Force to bomb Britain,’ added Philip.
    ‘He’s not building much of an Air Force, dear,’ Pin Marlow put in. ‘Mr. Baldwin said in the House not long ago that the R.A.F. is far stronger.’
    ‘Then he made a criminally misleading statement.’
    ‘That’s pretty strong language to use about the ex-Prime Minister, Philip,’ said his father.
    ‘But doesn’t it stand to reason, Dad? Hitler couldn’t employ
eight million
men on making roads and canals, and the German export trade is no better than it was when he took over. The only way he’s been able to find jobs for these enormous numbers is by going all out on full-scale rearmament. Nine-tenths of those eight million are hard at it turning out guns, tanks, planes and submarines. And whatever the true comparative strengths of the British and German Air Force are today, our production is limited by Parliamentary estimates, whereas Germany’s is not. That’s why they’re bound to overhaul us before long and old Baldwin’s statement was so wickedly misleading.’
    ‘Of course, Hitler is rearming to a certain extent,’ admitted theAdmiral. ‘There can be no doubt about that. But why should you suppose that his intentions are necessarily hostile towards Britain?’
    ‘Hang it all, sir!’ Philip threw out his knobbly hands in a little helpless gesture. ‘It was the British Empire that defeated Germany last time, wasn’t it? The French lost so many men that they were practically out of the game by 1916, and the Americans only arrived in really big numbers towards the end. It’s Britain that bars the way to German world domination, so whatever other plans Hitler may have he’s bound to have a showdown with us sooner or later. If he doesn’t his people will sling him out. The Germans are the last people to go on piling up armaments indefinitely without any intention of using them; and, if Hitler won’t play, the Junker Generals will find another leader who will.’
    ‘Do stop him, Daddy!’ Ellen said in a bored voice. ‘Other wise, he’ll be giving us the whole of the speech he made when the debating