SPIRITUAL COURAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 November 1941, Page 7

SPIRITUAL COURAGE

MAY BE LET DOWN. BY INCOMPETENCE ON TOP. After paying tribute to the valorous spirit of the common people of England, Sir Philip Gibbs, writing in “World Review,” continues: — What makes one anxious is the thought that all this spiritual courage may be let down by incompetence on top; by a false optimism slurring over dreadful facts; by red tape officialdom strangling action, desperately urgent; by oldfashioned minds working in the rhythm of the last war, while our enemies are devising new methods of warfare; by the easygoing character of the English tradition, unable even now to envisage the terrific perils of our present state; by the amateur touch, challenged by professionals dehumanised in their scientific brains, and very industrious in the organisation of death and destruction. We have moved so slowly while those ethers moved so fast. We have been unimaginative while our qnemy went ahead of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells in the invention of terror. Our intelligence let us down. Our diplomacy was deplorable. We have made irreparable mistakes. We are still unable to escape from the traditions of a social system and character which are apt to blunt the fine edge of swordlike minds, impatient of delay. We are swathed and blanketed in the jolly old faith that England always comes out on top—so why worry? Those are the defects and dangers of our national character. Will they let the people down—these people who show a common courage which over-steps the ordinary limit of human endurance? That would be a fearful thing. Being English I cannot believe that it will happen. Somehow the spirit of our people will win its final victory over the powers of evil and darkness.