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Show HANDS In a Common Task " There were tour of us at the table that evening three guests and myself as host. We had discussed discuss-ed every phase of the subject and wrung it dry. Came a moment of silence. Not an awkward moment, but a pause filled with expectation for a climax on what had preceded. One guest laid his hands on the table, patrician hands, faultlessly manicured, nails polished to the height of brilliancy hands which had been busied, bus-ied, not in the rougher walks of life, but as though active in lighter pursuits. He said: "Gentlemen, there are my hands on the table; everything in sight, everything above board. Hands of Lend-Lease, of men, of materials, and thousands of other hands fit to forge the V of Victory." There was a pause. Then The second guest laid his hands on the table, short pudgy hands, with muscled fingers hands for throttling a foe. Instinctively you centered your gaze on the face of him to see if it tallied with the character' shown in the hands. A face of the heavy jowl of fighter, the massive set face, the face of the English bull-dog of one who fastened on a hold and HELD! Held until the foe unconditionally surrendered. surren-dered. He studied, probing for the right words. "With those hands I climbed the wire barricade of a prison camp in the Transvaal;with those hands I forged each step of my present rank and position. Not so long as strength and will directs those hands will F liquidate one iota of the territory of the Imperial Imper-ial Empire. Not for that was I elected. Nay, fight to recover Singapore, Canton, all that was temporarily tempo-rarily wrested away. Unconditional Surrender. RECOVER. HOLD ALL. FIGHT IT OUT!" , The third guest sat with heavy pipe stem held firmly in steel jaws, a silent man, who usually talked talk-ed only when the thing was ended, done. A rumbling rum-bling from deep down within betokend that a message mes-sage was brewing for delivery. Laying aside a vodka glass, he held both hands before him scrutinizing scrutin-izing them closely. Turning them over, still fixed in study he said: "Those hands have oft been stained stained with blood. Nor did I think it disgrace. It was for the better building of a sleeping nation, a giant in strength when solidifed, unified, cemented in a common cause. The stain was for my Fatherland, my country MY Russia. I made others feel my passion perhaps not gently." He turned them back and forth before our eyes. We saw creative hands, hands of fixed purpose hands of a commoner, gnarled with toil. "They are steeped withublood again with gore of an aggressor, who shall be driven from our soil an inhuman foe a Hun a Beast a Swine. That foe shall pay, and pay bitterly. "Nor shall I think second blood bath disgrace to them. Those hands will strike and STRIKE! for a greater, better, more unified whole. Those are the tools of one who loves his land; one who saw that land cruelly wasted, its towns, cities and countryside country-side ruined; its men butchered; its women ravished; its sons slaughtered in foul mass murders. "Those hands are pledged to turn back the foe." Then turning to the second man he said: "You and yours have felt bombs; you have dug dear ones from ruins;; you have borne demolitions; You have suffered Dunkirk. My hands are with yours Hand to Hand for Unconditional Surrender. And (speaking to the first guest) to your land for its freedom and ideology, though differing from mine." I had heard the leaders of three mighty powers expressing the crystalized thought of each nation. Those hands were greater than hands of men. They were the Hands of Destiny. All rose. As the first two guests rose arm in arm I heard the chubby one say "Like this, arm in arm we go after to the distant foe in the Pacific hand placed in hand navy steaming with navy guns speaking in unison. Both to get what was wrested away." Then aside in lower voice, he added, "Why not give Joe first entry into Berlin? That honor is his, won by his hands. Come, the Time Invites us. "Happy landings." I expect to hear soon (relatively so) of the defeat of Germany. Joe hammering them to their knees on his side the Allies on their side. And after thcrt I hold differently from many others: I think the SW Pacific will close very rapidly, under the combined blows of two vastly superior mights. |