Seeing Clearly

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 187, 4 May 1940, Page 15

Seeing Clearly

“Opinion is never static—it is still, for all our country’s stern resolution, sensible, reasonable and free from hate. But once the war becomes intensified, and the real horrors begin, our mood will change,” writes Mr. Bryant, in his opening chapter. “Civilian opinion will inevitably undergo the same imperceptible but unavoidable mental deterioration that twenty years ago culminated in the Khaki Election and the Treaty of Versailles. Dr. L. P. Jacks has warned us that “the conditions for a good peace deteriorate with every day the war is prolonged.’ And it may be prolonged a very long time. “If the peace we hope to make is ; to be worthy of the men who are fighting to win it, its foundations will have to be laid now. They will have to be laid in our minds and wills. We must prepare for it in advance' in the same way as we have prepared for war. Last time as a result of vast efforts and sacrifices we won victory. But we did not win peace. . We failed because we never took enough trouble to do so. “With the tragic example of 1019 before us, we cannot afford to wait until the public has become too embittered even to try to think objectively. “Because of that failure mankind has returned for a second time in ageneration to the shambles. To some of us who fought in the last war, the events of August, 1939, brought a spasm of torturing bitterness. For it seemed for a moment as though the sacrifice of a million comrades had been in vain. We were again at war with the same defeated enemy, and for the same ends.” —Mr. Arthur Bryant, in “Unfinished Victory.”