THE ANVIL OF WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 21, 25 July 1945, Page 6

THE ANVIL OF WAR

"Real steel is never any the worse for a hammering" is how the new High Commissioner for the United Kingdom, Sir Patrick Duff, on his arrival here yesterday, aptly summed up the condition of Britain after nearly six years on the anvil of war. Only good metal intrinsically, real steel, could stand such a pounding as the British people have received with the war at their very doors all the while. They have come through the ordeal of fire none the worse for it, probably, harder and tougher and better able to face the future in reliance on the qualities brought out in themselves by the hammering of war. As Sir Patrick put it of his people:- "We have a renewed confidence in our capacity and re*sourcefulness, as witness the. scale, multitude, and success of British inventions." Many of these will have a value in peace, and the genius which has devised so many instruments of defence and offence in overcoming the fearful problems of war will find full scope in peace. There is a world to be restored from the devastation of war and to be developed by the arts land organisations of peace. We can be sure that Britain will play her part. There are already many signs of a renewal of the old, vigorous life which faced so many trials in the crises of the past and came through them all with the calm, undaunted spirit that marked, in these latter years, the behaviour of the British people in the teeth of danger. So Sir Patrick confirmed the feeling already existing here in the words, "the future has many trials, but no terrors for Britain." The tasks of war recovery are immense, but the courage and resource that prevailed in the war will not be Wanting for the job that lies ahead.