Consolation, December 13, 1939
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Contents
The Death of Poland 3
Stalin Stabs Poland in the Back 4
Line-Up for World Control 5
Vatican Stands Back of Hitler 6
Oppressed by the Racket 7
Systematic Murder of Liberty-Lovers 10
The Ricksha Chief 11
New Government
As a Result, Orders Poured In 12
Politicians with Ivory Domes 12
Locusts in Bromsgrove 13
Counsel by J. F. Rutherford
"God in Government" 17
Social 18
Under the Totalitarian Flag
New Church Legislation in Japan 21
"Christmas," or "The Mass of Christ" 22
The Fear of the Racket 23
Religion in Germany 25
South America 26
In the Great Southwest 27
Independent Farmer to the AAA 27
British Comment
War Conditions 28
The Evacuation 28
Emergency Legislation 29
Conscientious Objectors 30
Franco's Victorious Legions 31
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Appetizers
Johnny Knew the Facts
The teacher was questioning little Johnny. "So far, Johnny, you haven't been doing so well. Now, this one should be easy. Spell 'cloth'."
The boy's face was a blank. He was stuck.
"Come, now," urged the teacher, "surely you know the word 'cloth'. What are your trousers made of?"
"Oh," replied the boy brightly, "my father's coat!"
More Work for the Seamstress
A little city boy who had been to the country was describing to another boy friend the big pig he had seen. "It was in a pen," he said, "and it was afraid of the little pigs. They would chase the big pig around the pen, and after he fell down with exhaustion the little pigs pounced upon the big pig and ate the buttons off his vest."—Farmers Magazine.
Not Frightening Enough
Farmer Hawkins was complaining to his wife that he could find no old clothes to put on the scarecrow.
"Well," said she helpfully, "there's that flashy suit son wore at college last year."
"Yeah, but I want to scare the crows, not make 'em laugh."—Labor.
Trying to Remember
Frosh: I guess you've gone out with worse-looking fellows than I am, haven't you?
No answer from the co-ed.
Frosh: I say, I guess you've gone out with worse-looking fellows than I am, haven't you?
Co-ed: I heard you the first time. I was trying to think.—Labor.
Something Fishy Somewhere
Little Billy had just been told that an angel had brought him a little sister.
"Would you like to see her?" asked the doctor.
"No," said Billy, "but I'd like to have a look at the angel."
Misjudged
Mother: Willie, why did you kick your little brother in the stomach?
Willie: It was his own fault. He turned round.
CONSOLATION
“And in His name shall the nations hope.”—Matthew 12:21, A. R. V.
Volume XXI Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, December 13, 1939 Number 528
The Death of Poland
WITH the most highly mechanized army ever assembled, Germany obliterated Poland in eighteen days. In less than four years the pope, Hitler and Mussolini destroyed the Spanish Republic. Hitler destroyed Austria, Mussolini destroyed Ethiopia, Hitler destroyed Czechoslovakia, Mussolini destroyed Albania, Japan is busy destroying China, and Hitler and Stalin, two common murderers, split Poland between them; and no power of man will ever re-establish what they have destroyed.
The Poles did not stand a chance against Hitler’s new tanks. Personal bravery cut no figure. The tanks went wherever they pleased, and Uncle Sam was scared enough at their performance that the U. S. Army immediately bought 329 new tanks at $17,790 each.
When the Poles fled over the Rumanian border, with the German legions hard in pursuit, there was a time when 10,000 automobiles jammed both roads for a distance of twelve miles back. Some of these automobiles were fire engines and hook and ladder trucks loaded with refugees, trying to escape the Nazi terror. 202 of the Polish airplanes landed in Cernauti, Rumania, in such quick succession that in one instance a plane came down on three others, having no other place to land, with the result that the four were demolished.
What the tanks did not do, the planes, fitted with engines made by Pratt & Whitney, at Providence, Rhode Island, finished. They made a wreck of every Polish hangar in jig time. They gained a great victory over the women and children of Warsaw, about three thousand of whom were slain by the airplane bombings and in the ensuing bombardment of the city by the German troops. The Poles held out for twenty days against an onslaught that destroyed the water supply, electric plants and half the buildings of the city. They fought until their ammunition was exhausted. Two battalions of women soldiers fought beside their menfolk. Nine hospitals filled with the wounded were destroyed, along with all the monuments and churches. The only help the Poles received was a few letters written to the London Times.
Big Business Backs Hitler
In 1934 the secretary of state of the United States was trying to discourage arms shipments to Germany, but the United States army and navy officials worked in the opposite direction. Those officials helped design, develop and finance the Pratt & Whitney engines, sold in huge quantities in that year to Hitler, and now used by him to overrun the peace of the world. In the same year the secretary of state sought to discourage the sale of planes to Japan, and when he publicly announced that the Pratt & Whitney Company was the only company failing to meet the government’s wishes, the company surrendered, as far as Japan was concerned, but not as respects Germany. The backers of the Pratt & Whitney Company are great patriots and in a flag-waving contest would be the first to show sore arms.
Maybe you wonder how such high-minded patriots as Pratt & Whitney Company and their friends in the United States Army and Navy could be persuaded to back a common liar like Hitler. Don’t be silly. It is purely a business matter. Pratt & Whitney are in the business of selling airplane engines and would sell them to the Devil direct if they knew how to get in touch with him. And the Army and Navy officials would help the cause along, in hopes it would whoop up the war business and result in promotions and bigger pay at home.
You would not expect the Jesuit-trained Hitler to tell the truth about anything; now, would you? You know it is only a little while ago he was saying such nice things about Poland and the Polish government and people. The British government has assembled some of these statements, and here they are:
In the Reichstag, May 21, 1935, Hitler said:
We recognize the Polish State as the home of a great patriotic nation with the understanding and the cordial friendship of candid nationalists.
Again in the Reichstag, February 20, 1938, Hitler said:
The Polish State respects the national conditions in this country and that city [Danzig], and Germany respects Polish rights.
Again in the Sportspalast, September 26, 1938, Hitler said:
A State with 33,000,000 inhabitants will always strive to have an outlet to the sea. It was, therefore, necessary to find a way to an understanding. This way has been found.
Stalin Stabs Poland in the Back
By preconcerted arrangement, as soon as Germany had made the whirlwind drive that prostrated all efforts at defense, Russia marched in on a 500-mile line to take the half of the country allotted to the Kremlin murderer and his followers. Neither Hitler nor Stalin has any use for the other. What Hitler thinks of Stalin and his outfit is recorded in black and white in Reynal and Hitchcock’s translation of Mein Kampf, set out as follows in the New York Times:
“1. The present rulers of Russia do not at all think of entering an alliance sincerely or of keeping one.
“We must never forget that the regents of present-day Russia are common blood-stained criminals; that here is the scum of humanity, which, favored by conditions in a tragic hour, overran a great state, butchered or rooted out millions of its leading intellects with savage bloodthirstiness, and for nearly ten years has exercised the most frightful régime of tyranny of all time.
“Nor must we forget that these rulers belong to a nation which combines a rare mixture of bestial horror with an inconceivable gift of lying, and today more than ever before believes itself called upon to impose its bloody oppression on the whole world. We must not forget that the international Jew, who today rules Russia absolutely, sees in Germany, not an ally, but a state marked for the same destiny. But one does not conclude a treaty with some one whose sole interest is the destruction of his partner.
“Above all, one does not make them with parties to whom no treaty would be sacred, since they inhabit this world, not as the advocates of honor and truthfulness, but as the advocates of lying, deceit, theft, rapine and plundering.”
In the Reichstag, January 30, 1937, Hitler made the following statement regarding Stalin and his followers, which all now know was entirely false:
I request the German workers to avoid all contacts and relations with these international parasites, and consequently it will never occur that one will see me dining and wining with them. Furthermore, any treaty links between Germany and present-day Bolshevist Russia would be without any value whatsoever. There is only one State with which we have never sought close relationships and with which we do not want to have any close relationships. I mean Soviet Russia. [In New York Times]
William Philip Simms, foreign editor for the Scripps-Howard newspapers, says, “Today there is not a statesman in Europe who would trust either Hitler or Stalin as far as a child could throw the Brooklyn Bridge. And they can’t trust each other.”
Double-crossing the Double-Crossers
The Russians claim that the thing that persuaded Stalin to hook up with Hitler was a conversation between Hitler and Sir Nevile Henderson, recorded by dictaphone and phonograph apparatus, in which Henderson tried to persuade Hitler to attack the Soviet Union. Hitler had the records played for Stalin’s delectation and then the two dictators and murderers joined hands.
Within six weeks from the start of the war Russia had seized control of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, garrisoning these countries with Soviet troops, and Finland was waiting, cap in hand, to know what it must do to satisfy Stalin and Hitler. The government of Poland had been wiped off the map, its officials having fled to Rumania. Lithuania had been given control once more of its ancient capital, Vilna.
By arrangement between Hitler and Stalin all Baltic Germans are going back to their homeland. Stalin is no fool, and knows that as long as there is one German left in the vast territory which he controls there can always be manufactured the excuse that Germans are being oppressed and a campaign for their liberation is necessary. As soon as the Baltic States have been divided between these two birds, the balance of eastern Europe will receive similar attention.
Within two weeks after Russian troops entered eastern Poland, Communist books and pamphlets had been circulated by the million, Soviet newspapers had sprung up and the motion picture theaters were in full blast, along with evening classes boosting the Russian régime. Also, and this is not unimportant, the Russians confiscated the big Polish estates, turned them over to the peasants, and, according to Moscow dispatches, chased the former landlords into the swamps.
Line-Up for World Control
The Totalitarian line-up for world control is now alleged to be Germany, Italy, Russia and Japan against the rest of mankind. It is natural enough that the four dictator nations (with a sympathetic Spain in the background) would wish to get together to put Britain and France out of the running, and then put the heat on Uncle Sam. The alliance between the Vatican and Communism, arranged through Hitler, is a corking idea.
The Chicago Tribune says of the forces now opposing Hitler, or supposed to be opposing him:
They made every mistake, as we can now see, omitting none. They let Hitler rearm. They let him move his troops into the Rhineland and build tremendously strong fortifications on the western front to prevent France from holding him in check. They let him absorb Austria, and by so doing they let him get on both flanks of Czechoslovakia. They let him have the Sudetenland, an enormously strong military position, which threatened his flank, and they professed to be astonished when, a few months later, he swallowed the rest of the country which they had all but delivered to him. When they lost Czechoslovakia as an ally they lost a powerful army, well disciplined and well equipped, and an arsenal famous the world over, all of which is now at Hitler's service. They let Poland join in the rape of Czechoslovakia to obtain an area which could not be held against German arms if the Germans should ever desire to take it, and in so doing they managed to lose for Poland a great deal of sympathy which she might otherwise have had when the conflict finally came.
The seizing of the governments of decent people by youths that have been trained in methods of cruelty and dishonor by racketeers is not so hard as most think. In the Manchester Guardian Harold Picton speaks of his personal knowledge on the subject, and as the grabbing of America is openly threatened by every spokesman of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy, including its mouthpiece Coughlin, what he says is worth reading and thinking about.
In September, 1922, I was in Italy. The Fascist party was scarcely treated seriously. They were described to me as "silly boys". A couple of months later came the March on Rome. After that the Italian people were powerless, and have remained so ever since. In the autumn of 1932 I spoke in Germany of the Nazi menace, but I did not find that German friends treated it seriously. At the end of January, 1933, Hitler was put in power by Hindenburg, and the German people have been powerless ever since.
Lookit who "our" and "we" turned out to be!
No Criticisms Allowed
It is a tenet of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy that none of its teachings are to be questioned or discussed. Hitler imbibed the same idea with his mother's milk.
For criticizing the bargain between Hitler and Stalin more than 1,200 members of the storm troops and blackshirts were shot within two days and 51,000 were taken into "protective custody". To be taught for years that the archenemy of Hitler is Russian Bolshevism, or Communism, and then to have Hitler fall in Stalin's outstretched arms, was a little too much for some German stomachs.
It is interesting that the first martyr to be sacrificed by Germany because of refusal to "do his duty as a soldier" was August Dieckmann, of Dinslaken, one of Jehovah's witnesses. The date of execution is not known, but publication of the fact appeared in British newspapers seventeen days after the war started.
General von Brauchitsch, commander-in-chief of the German Army, followed an order with the words "Forward with God for Germany". The object of this is the same as the "Gott mit uns" slogan of 1914-1918, to try to impress the German people with the idea that God has fallen so low that He has to serve the whims of a man like Adolf Hitler.
On the German tanks invading Poland, the emblem on the side of the tank driver's cab is a cross instead of a swastika. The object of this was to impress Poland, which is a Catholic country, with the realization that Hitler is a Catholic and that, after all, the "church" fully supports him in his ambitions to overrun the world. The cross and the swastika are virtually one, as indicated by the pictures showing the swastika being flown in front of Roman Catholic cathedrals in Cologne and elsewhere.
A dispatch from Berlin, dated a week after the war began, stated that "many Catholic churches have begun reading daily prayers for Adolf Hitler and his welfare". Why not? He is a true child of the "church", revealing all the characteristics that have made her famous and hated throughout her career.
Vatican Stands Back of Hitler
The Catholic bishops of Germany have issued a pastoral letter stating:
"In this decisive hour we admonish our Catholic soldiers to do their duty in obedience to the Fuehrer and be ready to sacrifice their whole individuality.
"We appeal to the faithful to join in ardent prayers that the Divine Providence of God Almighty may lead this war to blessed success and peace for our fatherland and nation."
The archangel is shown, brandishing a battle-sword and piercing a dragon with a holy lance, on the front page of Catholic papers. [New York Times]
A dispatch from Vatican City, sent after Germany and Russia had split Poland between them, stated that no word of religious molestations had been received and that—
The church under the present Pope has no fight against totalitarianism as such and its relations with totalitarian Italy are currently good. [Baltimore Sun]
The Devil's plan for stopping the spread of the message of God's kingdom, and the Kingdom itself, is to make the whole world totalitarian. It is inevitable that in this work he would have at his side his own church and his own spokesman. It is certain that the utterances of the Roman Catholic Church will be more and more outspokenly on the side of the dictators until the time comes for them to rend her and throw her to the dogs.
America and Britain will find, as did Austria, that when the time comes for the hirelings of the Hierarchy to betray their countries they will do so without the least hesitation. Indeed, they threaten it boldly, even now, over the radio.
In the destruction of Austria, the army, all dressed and ready to go into action, received orders not to leave their barracks until the German army had seized the country. When the German troops entered they were astonished to find no resistance, and to find the excellent food the Austrian army had been having as compared with their own meager rations. The first act of Germany was to remove from Austria its store of gold and all fresh fruits, butter, eggs, grain and the better grade of meats. Nazi and Gestapo agents visited every house and compelled owners to display flags and decorations or go to a concentration camp.
The Key Nation
Poland turned out to be the "key nation" of the second World War, as it had been often suggested by publicists might be the case. The country lies in an unusually exposed position. The only natural boundaries are the Carpathian mountains on the south and a strip forty miles wide on the Baltic sea on the north. The borders between Germany and Poland and Russia and Poland are imaginary lines drawn on a flat plain. Of the 30,000,000 population, it is calculated that 21,000,000 are Poles, 4,000,000 are Ukrainians, 3,000,000 are Jews, 1,000,000 are Germans, and 1,000,000 are White Russians. The Poles are Slavs, but liberty-lovers, and they have been dreadfully misgoverned for centuries.
At the close of the World War 3 percent of the people owned 44 percent of the land. The peasants lived in hovels hardly fit for pigs; 40 percent of them were illiterate; 30 percent of the workers received less than $3.50 per week; 23 percent received less than $2 per week; many had no work at all; fires were kept burning because the people could not afford to buy matches. Subsequently, conditions improved somewhat.
As late as 1937 there were strikes of peasants against their intolerable hardships. Resenting the efforts of the Fascist class to keep in the saddle, they blocked the roads, set fire to food shipments, destroying butter, cheese and eggs in large quantities, cut down fruit trees and poured petroleum over vegetables. People have to be badly treated to make them do things like that.
The Polish people, striving for liberty in 1793, 1813, 1831, 1848, 1863, 1905, and 1917, have always been extremely interested in the American Republic, which Kosciusko and Pulaski helped to establish. The broadest thoroughfare in Warsaw was named for Washington. Poland attracted the marked attention of the Western world by the severe walloping it gave the Bolsheviks at the gates of Warsaw in the summer of 1920. In 1927 the ancient Polish crown and scepter were found in a rubbish heap in the Dresden (Germany) Historical Museum.
A Simple-minded, Hard-working People
The largest cake ever baked was made for the king of Poland in 1730, though it must be admitted that it was a German baker that made it. The cake was 36 feet long and 16 feet wide. Into it went 1,800 quarts of wheat flour, 1 1/2 barrels of yeast, 326 quarts of milk, 3,600 eggs, and 3 pounds of nutmeg. The cake, which was kneaded on a huge sliding draw plate, was baked in an oven fitted with twelve chimneys. When rolled out of the oven it was loaded on a long wagon drawn by eight horses, and thence to the headquarters of the army review, where it was cut with a knife 20 feet long, specially made for the purpose.
Poland is to the east of Germany, and the east is more leisurely than the west. Polish officials do not allow themselves to be disturbed while tea is being drunk, and some see in this relics of the reign of the czars.
Polish women are among the hardest-working persons in the world, and are frequently worn out at 25 to 28 years of age. It is claimed that they never have a full day of rest. They do most of the reading, writing and figuring for the family, take care of the entire house, cook, bring up the children, sew for all the family, and help with the heavy farm work. Women under 21 are not allowed to emigrate from Poland unless accompanied by parents or relatives.
A Polish bride is expected to kiss all the guests at her wedding. One of them at Tecsoe had 7,001 guests, and it took her four hours to get around.
Polish families not equipped with bathrooms carry bath cards, which must be stamped once a month to show that the holders have been properly bathed. Persons over 70 or under 10 are excused.
Oppressed by the Racket
Like every other people, Poles are oppressed by the religious racket, and are very subject to it. Most Poles are Roman Catholics, but among the Polish nobility there are some of the Calvinist faith who have held out since the Reformation. Though few in numbers, these have huge influence on account of courage and independence. There are more than 3,000,000 Jews, the principal persecutor of whom is a Roman Catholic priest, the “Reverend Father” Trzeciak. Wherever he goes anti-Jewish riots follow. Being a zealous child of the Devil he is, of course, anxious to do his father’s will.
Like every other people, the Poles have a marked tendency to hero-worship. Though deceived for centuries, they still think some of their own race will be their great emancipator. The Polish government as it existed from 1920 to 1939 was largely the creation of one of these, Marshal Joseph Pilsudski; he was a good deal of a man as men go, and as dictators go, but he was a militarist.
In 1926 he locked the doors on the Polish parliament, thus making himself absolute dictator, but resigned on account of ill health. But even in retirement he controlled the country. He regarded the Polish parliament as unfit to rule, and did not hesitate to call it every name he could invent. He called the Polish constitution putrid carrion. He was so highly esteemed in Poland that his word was law. A woman deputy was jailed six months for making uncomplimentary references to him in a political address. He was a Lithuanian by birth, gruff, profane.
Pilsudski was a dictator by proxy, letting others rule, but checking them up sharply when they went wrong. He hated administrative detail, was well educated, personally courageous, a great reader, humorous and charming in his personal relations, a devoted husband and father, with a dislike for social activities. When he died all Polish newspapers appeared with black borders and the army and civil service went into mourning for six weeks. He asked that his heart be buried at his mother’s feet, and his request was granted. He always affirmed that she was the chief inspiration of his patriotism for Poland.
Only One Paderewski
One can hardly think of Poland without thinking of Paderewski, the world’s best pianist, and Poland’s first premier. He is still living at 78, in retirement in Switzerland. He thinks it most unfortunate that Poland ever embarked on the totalitarian road, government by a clique instead of by the people. He has been a voluntary exile from Poland since Pilsudski overthrew the government in 1926. His name was not included in the clique list of 30,000 persons, mostly militarists, entitled to vote in Poland in 1933. Four years later, when he issued a call for the abolition of concentration camps, and a warning against trusting the promises of Hitler, the Warsaw paper which published the manifesto was seized and not even allowed to explain the reason for its confiscation.
Poland has the largest Jewish population in Europe, and for years before the infamous paper-hanger seized control of Germany was the scene of terrible pogroms. It was necessary to close the University of Cracow for six months on account of the intolerable mistreatment of Jewish students. Even after the closed universities were reopened, Jews were forbidden to eat in the restaurants, and other students would not greet them or have any association with them. In the classrooms they were compelled to sit on the left side of the room, while those who hated them wore green ribbons and sat on the right.
Polish farmers would not sell milk to Jewish dealers. When former Premier Bartel, then a college professor, proposed the expulsion of two students guilty of leading anti-Semitic riots, he was rotten-egged. Rotten eggs are a substitute for brains. Many Jews and some others were killed in riots from time to time. Many students were attacked with razor blades attached to long sticks.
The Nazis of Germany carefully did all possible to increase the burdens of the poor Poles, both Jewish and non-Jewish. Right while Poland was wrestling with the problem, the German government, if such it may be called, expelled 14,000 Jewish Poles and chased them over the border into Poland in bitter weather. The province of Pomorze, or the Corridor, as it is known, next to Germany, became the center of persecutions.
Pierre van Paassen, who visited Poland seven times in eight years, reported that on every occasion he found the condition of the Polish Jews worse than on the previous visit, and on the last occasion 85 percent of them were paupers and another 10 percent were destitute.
The Weaker Neighbors
The clique that has ruled Poland for a decade or more has not endeared itself to mankind by the way in which the weaker neighbors have been treated. The capital of Lithuania was seized in 1920. For eighteen years thereafter the Lithuanians held Poland as unworthy of rail, air, postal or other relations, but in March, 1938, following Hitler’s technique, the Poles massed a great army on little Lithuania's border and announced that “the brutal and oppressive treatment of the 200,000 Poles in Lithuania must cease” and that all claims to the former capital, Vilna, must be surrendered. The Lithuanians yielded, because compelled to do so, but their constitution still says that their capital is at Vilna, now theirs once more.
Poland’s government made another big mistake when it learned that Hitler’s bluff regarding the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia had worked. In the hour of stress on their neighbor to the south, when Germany and Hungary were pressing the little republic on every other side, Poland threatened war unless Teschen were surrendered to it. This was a holdup, and there are not many who love justice who are grieved when a burglar gets hijacked, even though all decent people despise Hitler, the international hijacker.
In the year 1667 Poland included what is now Lithuania, and most of Ukrainia as well, and it is hard for the Poles to forget these ancient borders.
Hemmed in by Germany
Poland was always hemmed in on the north and west and later on the south by Germany, and Nazi Germany is not a good neighbor to any country. It was essential to the continuance of Poland as a separate country that it should play to keep Germany and Russia apart. The moment they joined hands, that moment the doom of Poland was manifest.
Mein Kampf tells the Nazi technique of destroying one’s neighbors, and the technique was followed to the last detail in the destruction of Poland.
A factor in the overrunning of Poland by Germany is that the large Jewish population of the former state boycotted German products, in the effort to mitigate the mistreatment of Jews in Germany, and this boycott angered the Nazi lords. As early as 1933 the people of Warsaw anticipated trouble with the Hitler régime over the 1,400-mile border between the two countries. As early as 1935 the Rota song, a hymn of hate for Germany, was popular in Poland, with an improvised line, “Poles spit on Germany,” not calculated to provoke brotherly love.
In the spring of 1937 many Polish newspapers, especially those in provinces bordering on Germany, were claiming that the Polish minority in East Prussia (the part of Germany to the north of Poland, and which lies between it and the Baltic) was being “persecuted both as Poles and as Catholics”. This seems to suggest that religion had something to do with the swallowing up of Poland.
In January, 1939, the Germans and Poles had a big celebration in Warsaw commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Polish-German non-aggression pact. Within four months Hitler denounced the pact and inside of eight months the German armies were hammering at the gates of Warsaw.
Access to the Baltic
When Poland was recreated it was deemed essential that she have access to the sea, and so to the rest of the world, so the fiction was created of the strictly German city of Danzig as being made a free city: the Polish goods could move through it in either direction without molestation. The Poles, besides, were given fifty miles of the coast, the “corridor” between East Prussia and Germany proper.
On this strip of coast, a few miles north of Danzig, the Poles made the new port of Gdynia, and in ten years built it from a fishing hamlet of 200 inhabitants to a more important port than Danzig itself. The tonnage was increased, for Danzig itself, but was mostly limited to coal. The Poles virtually boycotted the German city, and naturally this got under the hide of the Germans. For many years when the railroad trains passed through the Corridor, with the doors locked, travelers were compelled to show their passports four times—twice at each end of the corridor. This nuisance was subsequently mitigated, too late to mend the damage. To understand Danzig and the Corridor it is necessary to remember that the local Germans and Poles have hated one another fervently for 700 years.
The Germans have never been able to see why there was any more need for Poland to have a harbor on the Baltic than for Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bolivia or Paraguay to have ocean ports; hence the Polish corridor, the population of which in 1910 was 68 percent German, has seemed to them provocative. In the first seven years of Polish rule 990,000 Germans left the Corridor.
The Poles have never been able to see why the Germans should object to the corridor arrangement. The United States has a corridor across Ontario from Buffalo to Detroit, and Canada has a corridor across the state of Maine. The United States has a corridor between Alaska and the state of Washington.
The German war against Poland was waged because Hitler demanded the outright annexation of Danzig and a German road across the Corridor. Fear that he meant what he said caused the Poles to call up 1,000,000 men. Hitler at once set his propaganda machine in operation and the war followed in a few weeks as a matter of course.
Russia and the Ukraine
There are 4,000,000 Ukrainians in the southeastern part of Poland and their lot has not been a happy one under the rule of the clique that has governed Poland. They have been hated because they speak a different tongue, have a different religion (Orthodox instead of Roman Catholic), and have had nationalistic ambitions. Their newspapers have been savagely censored. Many of them have been beaten up when they were in prison.
Ukrainian villages to the number of 700 were raided at night and men and boys were compelled with their bare hands to wreck their own reading rooms, libraries and co-operative stores, and to sign statements that they did these things of their own free will. Some of the citizens were beaten to death. In some cases women, old men and children were beaten. Medical treatment was refused. Hospitals were forbidden to take in the victims. Lawyers were forbidden to defend clients. Even the German Nazis could hardly have done worse.
In one Ukrainian village the mayor was tied to a horse and dragged along the road while police followed, beating him over head and shoulders. A woman of 75 was dreadfully beaten. A child of nine was pushed aside so roughly that it died of concussion. Many women and children spent two consecutive nights in a forest in a pouring rain rather than be visited by these Polish police. The tortures of Ukrainian prisoners, as revealed in the Manchester Guardian, and which took place by the Polish police two years before Hitler seized Germany, could not have been worse. The torturers were Roman Catholics, and hence well trained in the most devilish organization of all time.
Russia feels no compunctions of conscience about dismembering Poland. Russia has millions of Ukrainians, too.
Latest reports of Gdynia [now Gotenhafen] are that it now has 50,000 population and not less than four miles of brand-new concrete wharves, a harbor of 500 acres area and a breakwater nearly two miles in length. The port is open the year round.
Dictators brook no criticisms of their acts, but they sometimes have to listen to accounts of their misdeeds. At a trial of political prisoners at Brest-Litovsk a man 73 years of age, marshal of the first senate of the Polish Republic, accused the Pilsudski group of assassinations of political foes and the illegal expenditure of $1,000,000 of government funds for political purposes. He was followed by the Polish patriot Voivod Korfanty, who said:
"If the Germans in Poland have a grievance against the Polish Government they can complain to the League of Nations and the government must give a satisfactory explanation. But what are we Poles to do? What am I to do, who spent many months in a Prussian prison but was never treated there so terribly and never so much humiliated as at Brest-Litovsk?"
The president of the court interrupted him and warned him not to mention the Brest-Litovsk prison. Thereupon, M. Korfanty refused to give further evidence. [New York Times]
Happened in Poland
◆ In a courtroom in a provincial Polish town recently, a youth who had been arrested was quizzed by the judge to test his mental powers. He was asked how many countries there are in Europe. His lawyer solemnly protested, insisting that his client hadn't read the morning paper.—The Nation.
Systematic Murder of Liberty-Lovers
Frank L. Kluckhohn, able and honest war correspondent of the New York Times, personally witnessed in Spain hundreds of people at the moment of execution, or just after they had been executed. If, when Franco seized a town, the people did not publicly and immediately acknowledge the conqueror, they were at once executed or imprisoned. The same system was later used in Poland. Portions of Poland which were conquered by German troops were immediately mopped up in the same manner. The people must either "Heil Hitler" or be destroyed. Don't get the idea there was anything civilized about the war in Poland. No war was declared and no mercy was shown to either combatants or non-combatants. The Lord's name for this accursed system of butchery is well chosen, "The abomination that maketh desolate." Franco had the "blessing" of the Devil on his work, and Hitler had it also.
Helium for Poland
◆ The United States adamantly refused to sell helium to Germany under any considerations, but when war was in the offing, and within less than a month of the time when it broke out between Germany and Poland, Uncle Sam sent a gift of 500,000 cubic feet of helium to Poland. It was to be used for stratosphere test flights. But maybe the Germans got it for use in their zeppelins after all.
Poland Called Boys of 14
◆ Any person with a heart must wince at the news from Poland that boys of 14 were called to the colors. It will be recalled that in the long-drawn-out war between Paraguay and Bolivia there were Paraguayan boys in the trenches so young that they cried for their mothers in between the battles. What a living hell Satan's world is, anyway!
Murdered Too Many Men
◆ A report from Russia is that in the numerous purges so many men were murdered for alleged unfaithfulness to their tasks, and their subordinates also, because they did not complain against their chiefs in time, that there is now real perplexity in finding men with enough experience to fill the complicated jobs that await them.
South Africa
The Ricksha Chief
◆ Pioneering, this month in this beautiful seaside city of Natal, Durban, I sometimes make use of one of the rickshas which ply for hire, to reach my territory.
A ride along the lovely Esplanade in the freshness of early morning is delightful although the motion of rickshas is rather uncomfortable for anyone not accustomed to traveling in them.
The photo I enclose gives some idea of the ricksha pullers, or "boys", as adult native men are often called out here.
The face of this fine Zulu "boy" reminds one of Haile Selassie, and he has a very pleasant and dignified manner.
He is the "Chief" of all the ricksha "boys" in Durban, and so he appropriately wears a bigger headdress than any of the others. There seems, to me, to be a lesson in the way these poor people use whatever material they are able, at little financial cost, to obtain, and with patience and care make apparel protective, effective, artistic and suitable, to their ideas, to their requirements.
Headdress of Zulu "chieftain"
The headdress of this "Chief" is a work of art. The border is composed of white pigeon wings, and then comes a row of red and white paper roses arranged alternately. Then a row of turkey feathers, and so on, all little spaces being nicely filled in with down. Then at the base, horns of cattle and a headband of fine-colored beadwork in an intricate and elaborate design. The "finishing touch" is attained by the two shiny blue glass globes, such as are used for "Christmas" tree decorations.
The front of the tunic is of the same fine beadwork at which work the Zulu women excel, as also they do in basket weaving, and grass-mat making and pottery.
Over the tunic hang chains of seashells, pods and beans and other seeds of "wild" trees, bones, beads and other quaint ornaments.
The cape around the back of the shoulders is of carefully mounted turkey feathers from which dangles a mantle of soft fur "tails". His white hose is really whitewash "picked out" in a lacy pattern giving the appearance of openwork.
The Zulu people are intelligent, clean, and if fairly treated are docile and faithful servants. Most of them are very poorly paid for any work they do, and we are glad to remember that the promise of the blessings of the Kingdom will bring joy and happiness to nearly all of them. At present life is hard for them.—Alice Cooper, Natal.
Reared by Baboons
◆ The little colored boy, named Lucas, who was raised by a tribe of baboons in South Africa until he had reached the age of 12, is now able to tell of his life in the wild. Until captured he went on all fours, slept in the bush entirely naked and lived by robbing ostrich nests of their eggs and wild bees of their honey. Crickets and prickly pears formed more staple articles of diet.
RIGHTEOUS RULER
THE NEW GOVERNMENT
As a Result, Orders Poured In
RELIGIOUS BOOK BANNED
◆ The banning of a Bible study book entitled Riches, by the well-known American religious teacher, Judge J. F. Rutherford, has caused some concern among the followers of the judge in South Africa. Actually, five books by this author, all on religious subjects, were banned from the Union by the Department of the Interior, but a particular protest is being made by the religious organization concerned in respect of the book Riches.
This organization has made repeated protests to the Minister, emphasizing that Riches is a seriously-written Bible study text-book which has been read and used by many thousands of people throughout the Christian countries of the world. It was contended that hundreds of such persons lived in the Union and would consider the banning of the book an act of injustice and a violation of the principle of religious liberty.
NO REASON GIVEN
In response to a request by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, which issued the book, the Department stated that it was unable to furnish reasons for the banning of Riches.
It is understood, however, that the belief is held that the message contained in the banned literature is likely to cause trouble among the non-European section of the population. This contention is denied by the issuers of the volume.
They admit that in the book certain truths are forcefully expressed, but they hold that the language used follows closely the language of the Bible.—The Sunday Times, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Politicians with Ivory Domes
◆ May I ask why such a book as Riches is banned? Clean, truthful, noble, it is uplifting to young and old. Yet the stores and paper stalls are teeming with filthy stuff appealing only to the very worst in the youth of our country. One wonders what kind of citizen the future will produce.—A. V. Whelan, in the Johannesburg, South Africa, Star.
A Tip to Bonehead Rulers
◆ I wholeheartedly agree with A. V. Whelan's protest in the Star of July 6 regarding the ban imposed on the book Riches, by Judge Rutherford. One has but to glance through the pages of this book to realize what a wealth of knowledge is contained in it. Knowledge that practically every person who is imbued with a feeling of good will towards his fellow men is seeking. In these days of trouble and continual tension, I am sure that people wonder and dread what the ultimate end will be. Any reasonable-minded person cannot fail to see that there is no escape from world conditions as they are today, except by complete faith in Jehovah God through Jesus Christ, and Riches solves the problem. One cannot fail to see that the banning of this book is a mistake on the part of our censors.—Jim Grant, in the Johannesburg, South Africa, Star.
City Police and Religious Liberties
◆ An open letter to the City Commissioners: Have we religious persecution in the City of Camden? Why should any such thing happen, as took place on Broadway in front of the Broadway Methodist parsonage last Saturday afternoon?
I hold no brief for, nor do I have any faith in, the movement known as "Jehovah's witnesses", nor do I agree with, much less accept the teachings of Judge Rutherford. But when I see the city police act, and do, as they did in front of my home last Saturday afternoon, then my Americanism rises in positive protest against what to me was but little less than brutal treatment of a group of men, women and little children, who were quietly walking up and down Broadway carrying signs announcing a religious service to be held on Sunday.
"Take them off! Take them off!" the police cried, then proceeded to pull the cards off the men and women and little children.
When automobiles with loud-speakers can drive up and down Broadway raucously blaring their announcements; and sandwich men can parade back and forth unmolested by the police, then I see no reason for such treatment of these sincere people, and perhaps more sincere than some of the religious people who make the complaint.
It looked too much like just plain religious intolerance and persecution. Will the time ever come when those in authority will realize that just such things tend to popularize the cause they represent?
I do not know who gave the police their orders, but who ever did simply served warning on every other religious group in Camden.
The humblest religious group in the City of Camden has as much right to their beliefs, and their methods of worship, and means of advertising their religious services, as any other and should not be molested, but rather protected by the police in an American city, so long as they proceed in an orderly manner, and these people were on Saturday. [June 10, 1939]
No city official should treat any religious group as the followers of Judge Rutherford were treated on Saturday.
From an American, who believes in religious liberty.—Thos. J. J. Wright, pastor Broadway M. E. Church, in Camden, N.J., Courier Post.
Kingdom message in Zomba, Nyasaland
Locusts in Bromsgrove
◆ Locusts broke out in Bromsgrove, England, a town of 22,000 near Birmingham. It seems that the locusts had originally planned to have a public lecture at De Grey's café on the subject of "Fascism or Freedom", but "Reverend Father" Warner put the heat on the De Grey outfit and after 10,000 leaflets, besides posters and banners, had been prepared, they welched, on the ground that some of their best customers were Catholics.
With the co-operation of the town clerk, police and Market Hall superintendent, the meeting was switched at the last minute to Produce Market Hall, for which no rental was required. Seventy locusts broke loose, with six sound-cars in action. Information marches covered the entire town for hours at a stretch with specially worded placards reading as follows: "Catholic Fascist Action," "Fearing Exposure," "Oppose Freedom of Speech," "Is this Rome or Britain?" "Religionists oppose Christians," "Cancels use of Local Hall," "De Grey's Café Canceled," "Come to," "Produce Market Hall," "Sunday at 6:30," "To hear 'Fascism or Freedom'." The placards were in red, green and blue.
The meeting was a big success. No seats were available, but 250 Bromsgrovians stood up and listened to the lecture, which went through without a hitch from the two sound-cars used for the purpose. As the chairman was giving the closing announcement one of a group wearing Catholic "Sacred Heart" badges demanded a debate, but was informed the hall was not engaged for that purpose. Much literature was placed; numerous requests for back-calls were handed in, and there were 16 persons of good will at the Salvation study started the next Sunday evening in the home of a person who attended the lecture.—C. Hutchings, England.
Kingdom Blessings in Cuba
◆ Witnessing in Cuba brings peculiar experiences. Recently, in a small dry-goods shop, the proprietor at first accused me of being out of my head. Then, when Scripture was quoted, he admitted that he believes that the Bible is the Word of God. Then he obtained some literature, and finally listened to Spanish records P-100 ("Cleansed World") and P-19, P-20 ("Suppressing the Truth"). Then he went to my grip, without a word, and selected a Bible and the Uncovered booklet, and said to his wife, "This man has brought to us the things that we should know. We give thanks to the great Jehovah."
A very different experience was had with Alexander Vernon, ex-catechist of the Church of England. When approached with the literature he said Rutherford ought to be burned at the stake, because he forbids people to go to church. His attention was drawn to the Scriptures which show that the so-called "churches" are prison-houses, whereupon he said I ought to be so burned, as well. He accepts the prayer book, not the Scriptures, as the guide to life everlasting. This man's responsibilities are great, because he has had in his home for a long time the book Enemies and the booklets Cure, Righteous Ruler and Face the Facts. Oddly, he admits that the general outlines of Judge Rutherford's writings are the truth. When his attention was drawn to the Scriptures which show that the early church was formed, not by those who upheld the teachings of the scribes and Pharisees, but by those who broke away from such teachings, he had no answer. He thinks that some day soon the church organizations will bring forth the true gospel to preach to all mankind. This gentleman is unwittingly looking for the day when these so-called "ministers of the gospel" will, every one of them, be found in their pulpits and on the corners of the streets, encouraging men and women to go to war.—Walton Jones.
Depot for Kingdom message, Nyasaland
Transcription meeting in Nyasaland
It Happens in Trinidad Also
◆ On our way back from a two-day outing with the sound-car the engine gave trouble, in a small village about seven miles from Toco, the nearest town. The villagers, who gave us all possible assistance, said they were not very sorry we broke down, because they always saw this "thing" passing and wondered what was meant by "Kingdom Message" on the speaker, and this was their opportunity to know something about it. Certainly it was, for we opened up "Big Bill" and let them have an hour's lecture. We were then provided with dinner and quite comfortable though not very soft beds. The next day, before leaving, we gave them another blast of the trumpet, and left some literature, for which they gladly contributed.—R. G. Mills.
(The experiences of Jehovah's Kingdom publishers are the most interesting and varied of any people on earth. Theirs is the most happy, useful and blessed life of all.—Ed.)
Swansea Information March
◆ First bystander (shortsighted physically): My word—look—that's strange—'RELIGION IS A SCARE—'
Second bystander (long-sighted mentally): Yes, it is strange, but it is true; and furthermore, I must say that I admire that people because they have no truck with either the Nasties or the Fastics.
Satanic Rule
◆ Satan has put fear into the Greek government, causing his representatives there to use their power in an endeavor to frighten faithful Christians and turn them away from Jehovah God. Satan's efforts, of course, have failed and will continue to fail against all who are faithful to the Theocratic Government. The Devil knows that his time is short, and he is taking desperate measures. This action against Jehovah's servants in Greece is corroborative proof that Armageddon is near.
REPORT OF THE ARREST OF JEHOVAH'S KINGDOM PUBLISHERS AT ATHENS, GREECE
(As related by a publisher who was present at the hearing and release of the witnesses)
At the meeting place, just before the meeting was to begin, twelve officers rushed in and arrested 74; 39 men and 35 women. They were placed in various prisons in Athens; none were mistreated; any of their friends and relatives could visit them and bring them food or anything else for their comfort.
The servants of the company at Athens were placed together in one prison, separated from the others. While in prison, from time to time they were told that they would be sent to one of the islands as exiles for a year, islands that have no water, and water would be sent to them once a week by boat. Women that were arrested with their young daughters were told that they would be separated from their daughters, being exiled to different islands.
After 21 days in prison with such experiences, they brought the men a paper to sign, a pledge that they renounce their belief, and told them that if they signed the pledge they would be set free, but if they would not sign it they would be sent into exile. One old lady, 81 years of age, and two others, signed the pledge; all the rest refused and they were told to get ready to go into exile, and they did so by having their friends or relatives bring their suitcases and other things needed while in exile, and everything was ready.
Immersion in Nyasaland (always referred to in central and southern Africa as "going to Jordan")
Jehovah's Kingdom publishers and company headquarters, Zomba, Nyasaland
On October 27, Friday, they were told that the next day, Saturday, each would hear the sentence.
On Saturday, 10 a.m., all were brought from the various prisons to the palace. Word had previously been sent to all relatives and friends of the witnesses, asking them to be present. When everything was ready, the Minister of Education read the charges against them:
They were against the "church";
They were against the government;
They held meetings without the license the law requires;
They said all governments were ruled by Satan;
They refuse to salute the flag; and,
They do not believe in the "saints" and the "Holy Mother of God".
For three hours the minister had others read portions from our books, booklets, Watchtower and Consolation that had been gathered from a careful examination of them. During the reading, the statement that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the prophets, would be the earthly rulers during the thousand-year reign of Christ was read. The minister turned to Kingdom publisher Karanassios and said, "If the government of the world will be turned over to the Jews, what are you going to get out of it?"
When the question concerning the saluting of the flag came up, the minister said to Karanassios, "If we do not salute the flag, what shall we salute?" Answer: "The truth of Jehovah God."
After the reading was over, the minister of education pronounced sentence.
The servants of the company: One year exile on a certain island.
Other witnesses: Eight months exile.
Women: Six months exile.
"Now," he said, "this is my judgment against you, but authority above me says you may go free."
After making this statement, he asked all of the prisoners to go out of the room, but their friends were to remain. When only the friends and relatives of the publishers were present, the minister said to them, "These people are good people, but something is wrong with their minds. They have been deceived. You, their friends, should try to bring them back to the Orthodox Church."
Out of about 25 newspapers published in Athens, only one published the arrest; the first day on the third page, with no few lies, and every day thereafter about one fourth of the first page and a column inside were devoted to lies about Jehovah’s witnesses, relating the history of Jehovah’s witnesses from 1874 up to the present time. Never was such publicity given to Jehovah’s witnesses in Greece up to this time.
The purpose of all this was to intimidate the witnesses; but in this they have failed. They have also confiscated all the books, booklets, typewriters, and everything else in the office except one printing press. Even the personal property of the witnesses who worked there, everything, was taken away.
EXPERIENCES
Before this experience, two Jonadabs of the age for military training had refused to put on the uniform and take arms. They were taken from the lowest rank officer up to the general, and in each case they gave the testimony of the Kingdom to them. Every one tried to persuade them to put on the uniform, but to no avail. Then they were told one evening while in prison that they would be shot the next morning if they would not change their minds.
The next morning found them unchanged; so they were ordered executed. The officers asked them to put on a cover over their faces, but the publishers said that was not necessary. They were then taken before the firing squad, the order was given, and the soldiers fired, but they used blank cartridges. Seeing their firm stand for the Kingdom, the authorities freed one of the witnesses and the other was placed in the prison again.
Two publishers who were placing literature in the city of Tripoli were arrested and brought before the judge, and the judge said to them, "My judgment concerning you is that you should have a book store in the center of the city square. Let them go free and do not bother them any more."
NOTE: We will translate a few articles from the papers at the first opportunity. These contain pictures of Pastor Russell, Judge Rutherford, and the covers of our booklets (Intolerance), all of these on the front page of the paper.
(The excerpts from translations which now follow show the desperate anxiety of the clergy to trump up something against Jehovah’s witnesses and so save their own hides. Such items are always written by the clergy.—Ed.)
FOUNDATIONS OF GREEK SOCIETY SHAKEN
THE UNDERMINING ACTION OF JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES COMES TO LIGHT
WHAT THE OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION REVEALS
Fifteen days ago the Police Organization of General Safety of Athens found the holy meeting of Jehovah’s witnesses. No one expected that the discovery would mean the cleansing of one of the greatest social scourges that had as a target the Greek Orthodox Church and the general government structure.
When the police entered the hall they found the number of 74 reading from their inconsistent books. One of them, as was proved later, was the leader, who was asking them how many books they had placed for their propaganda. The next day the police found it necessary to search their homes.
At Lomvardou 44, at the home of the leader of the heresy, Athanassios Karanassios, the authorities found themselves confronted with one of the most perfect propaganda organizations, thoroughly operated, with the greatest and most up-to-date machinery for the manufacture of their propaganda. Entire rooms had been turned into up-to-date printing shops and book-storage houses.
Besides the reading matter and means of printing it, the famous house on Lomvardou 44 is one of the most important caves in the East.
Persecuted in all civilized nations, Jehovah’s witnesses had their base in the home of Ath. Karanassios, the official representative in Greece of the American International Bible Students. In a careful investigation into the activities of Jehovah’s witnesses in Greece, it did not take long to bring to light things the ones making the arrest did not believe could be possible.
Jehovah’s witnesses, whom the Grecians took as a joke, are revealed as one of the most up-to-date conspiracy organizations, branching off as an international one having as its purpose the methodical undermining, from the foundations, of the church and also the nation, with Satanic means.
"The brethren" of Jehovah’s witnesses, from the first examination by the Athens Police Organization of Safety, were revealed as common deceivers; an organization against the government and society having always as its target the church, the priests, and the army.
The arrest of 74 of Jehovah’s witnesses brings to light all the machinery of a dangerous and anti-social heresy that had been furnished money from outside, and which operates in the heart of the Greek nation.
…