Eighty years ago, the horrors in China reach Biblical proportions, France moves on some embarassing visitors and transport safety rockets up the agenda in Britain and Germany
The
already grim conditions on the battlefield in China became even worse when the
defending Chinese armies breached the dykes containing the Yellow River to hold
back the advancing Japanese in what has been described as “the largest act of
environmental warfare in history.” Tens of thousands of square kilometres were
flooded for minimal military gain. Perhaps 400,000 civilians were drowned and a
further 5m were made homeless. Elsewhere epidemics were becoming a notable
feature with cholera and typhoid attacking even the relatively privileged European
population.
At the
northern end of the Pyrenees 10,000 soldiers of the Republic 43rd
division retreated across the mountains after a prolonged rear-guard action. They
were practically the last remaining formed units of the Republic army in the
North. The French authorities speedily evacuated them across the country into
Catalonia which remained in Republican hands. Despite the efforts of Francoist
propagandists who were allowed access to the men, only a handful asked to be
sent to areas under Nationalist control.
Britain’s
semi-state-owned airline Imperial Airways had come in for severe criticism on a
number of scores, most notably its perennial financial deficits. Somewhat
surprisingly the government announced that the new Chairman was to be Sir John Reith,
Director general of the BBC, who had no experience of aviation or running a
commercial business of any kind. Hidden from public view Reith had been
lobbying his patrons at the top of the Civil Service for a more responsible job
as a stepping stone to higher things. The man the civil servants really wanted
in the job had spotted a disaster in the making and declined, leaving them to
make do with Reith as a docile and obedient “safe pair of hands” despite his
lack of qualifications.
The
British and German governments were united in their desire for road safety. Leslie
Burgin, Britain’s junior transport minister in pale imitation of his more rumbustious
senior, Leslie Hore-Belisha (he of the beacons with whom he shared a given name
and an affiliation to the fading National Liberal party) launched a campaign to
improve safety for bicyclists, calling for cycles to bear disks identifying the
rider, rear lights and not to ride more than two abreast. Only one of these made
it into law, providing occupation for the Cambridge constabulary for many years,
prosecuting undergraduates caught riding lightless at night. By contrast Hitler
no less ordered the National Socialist Motor Corps to test the fitness of coach
drivers after a series of fatal accidents.
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