BRITAIN’S FUTURE

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21178, 30 July 1940, Page 2

BRITAIN’S FUTURE

FRANK SPECULATION CONFIDENCE IN THE UPSHOT PROFESSOR HANCOCK’S VIEW I shall write a little about my own thoughts and feelings; they may be wide of the mark, but I dare say you will like to get anything first hand from England just now (wrote Professor Hancock, Professor of Modern History at Birmingham University). Roughly, lam pessimistic about the immediate situation and confident about the final upshot. Confidence is the wrong word, and smacks too much of our silly optimism in past years. It is just because the nation at last realises how great is the peril, that it has found its will and released its energy and become unconquerable. The present situation, so far as I can see it, is that that the French, even more than ourselves, were caught preparing for the last war instead of this one. Possible Happenings All the pundits told us that Defence was in the ascendant; but the combination of air power and land mechanisation has produced a force of attack which for the time being is like maxim-guns against the spears of fuzzy-wuzzies. But let us make a list of the worst things which may possibly happen; because it is only by being ready to face the very worst that we can test our nerve. Here’s a long enough list of not impossible horrors:— Destruction of the army in northern Belgium and France. Subsequent knock-out of the whole of France. Italians rushing Egypt by superior air power. German air-landed force playing hell in Ireland. Some time ago I might have added to this list of possible horrors Russian combination with Italy against Turkey and ourselves, but at present the signs seem to point the other way. “Recovered Its Will” I have been pessimistic for many 3'ears, and every time my fears have been realised; so, though I hope this time that they are exaggerated, I clo not rule them out. But one fear is forever exorcised. This country has recovered its will. You just cannot imagine what a difference this makes. To know that we can trust our leaders, to know that they will call on everything which we can give and to know that we will give even more than that—it changes everything. From the military point of view, I believe it makes Hitler’s defeat certain.

In his Satanic way he is a very great man; terrific virtu; no wonder he rushed the French; for years he has gathered every ounce of the terrific striking force of Germany for this blow, while we and the French remained mentally, spiritually and physically lazy. But the impact cannot carry its full force across the Channel. In the next few months we shall get horribly strafed; but now we have the nerve to stand up to that.

We shall make ourselves a fortress that cannot be broken, gnd in time we shall become the spear-head of the oceanic and New World, forces which will break him. This will happen, even if the very worst things which I have talked about happen in the next few months. Guarantees of Success A Government containing Churchill, Morrison, Bevan, and Sinclair, and a nation which insisted that it must have this government—these are the guarantees that we will succeed. There are other good people in the government, and there are some indifferent people in it too. No matter, it fuses our will to survive, and if Kingsley Wood or anyone else conceives the job too pettily or easily, he will go. It has to happen. I’m very well up in the faults of the British Empire, as you know. I won’t say too much about its virtues, though they exist. I have just come back from Africa, and I am as certain as I am of my own existence that if the Nazis were to break through us hell would be let loose in Africa. The Africans also know it. We certainly have not made heaven in Africa, but we have started something which has some ordinary decency and hope in it. Often in Nigeria I found myself being surprised to find it so good. Then I went on being surprised that we should have left it half-way, and even run the risk of losing much of the good because we had not put in the extra ounces of thought and resolution that would have kept it moving and thereby made it secure. Every Ounce Well, I think we are going to put every extra ounce into this war; and I believe that we are going to put the same extra ounces into setting our own society in order when he have won the war. Chamberlain’s resignation is symbolic, and is a more important landmark than the Reform Act of 1832. It marks the passing of an age—the age of the Business Man, 18321940.

Anybody who imagines that Chamberlain was a bad man is making a silly mistake. In some ways he is a very good man. Some years ago American “leftists” were writing plays which featured Chamberlain, Hitler and Mussolini as partners in Fascist plotting : against “the masses.” Nothing ] could be more absurd. I Chamberlain and Hitler were and are fundamentally opposed; and if the choice were (as it seemed recently to be) between Chamberlain and Hitler. I should choose Chamberlain. I should do so, however, under a feeling of doom. Hitler is a man who belongs to the present and the future; he accepts them and forges them for evil. Chamberlain rejected the evil, but rejected the present and future with it. It was not morality or courage that he lacked: it was his limitations that were disastrous. “Business Man’s Century” He simply could not escape from

I the Joe Chamberlain-Birmingham I age, which was the last phase of the J Business Man’s Century. 1 That meant he was unable, despite good intentions, to wage modern war or organise modern peace. His successors will do both, and Chamber- , lain’s acceptance of them (he did ; that with real nobility) is a. pledge : ! that the old order will pass re- i ’ signedly into the new, as it did in 1832. Churchill is so much an aristocrat ! that he is also a democrat; a classless man. Morrison and Bevan can , work with him, now and after. | My own feeling is that if this struggle lasts too long for Churchill, ! Morrison will take on the leadership; |he has the power in him. 4 I As for the job—it is to make society organic without destroying | freedom. In peace time we have . to get a new standard of social duty. I The acid test of our success will be ; the abolition forever of the disease and disgrace of unemployment. Different Ends Germany did this by and for (1) i the release of racial hatred; (2) the I abolition of personal freedom; (3) i I the perpetuation of war. We take ' up the job during war, a war which we have to win, and a war which we cannot win without cornmitteej of-public-safety methods, j It may seem an unhappy start. But it is not the way the Nazis start- , ed, and its end is not their end. j They started by burning down the Reichstag and destroying the workI ers’ organisations and forcibly sub--1 cluing their own people. ! But it was the people who started j the thing here; it was they who sub- ; dued the government. It could not j have been done without the trade unions; it could not have been done I without Parliament, and the work i will be carried through by them. I For the duration of the war we : are “totalitarian,” and we shall in j many things remain “totalitarian” after the war. So I hope. But we I shall graft all that on to the stock | of our ancient freedom, j We take the thing and use it as an | instrument (one could see this comj ing before the war, e.g., in New ZeaI land), and thereby prevent Hitlers ! and Mosleys and such canaille from forcing it on us to make us its slaves and the instruments of their personal lunacies. Backs to the Wall Our backs are to the wall just now, and personal reactions have to be strong. Either one will accept a Hitler world, or no. I say “No!” and that means a programme both for war and peace. In war, we have to surrender some of our normal liberties; there’s medicine we have to drink. Ido that cheerfully. It doesn’t hurt me when we lock up Oswald Mosley and Co. t We shall lock up some decent j people by mistake. I’m sorry for that, but I wish the Norwegians and I the Dutch had made the mistake on 1 the side of severity instead of easygoing optimism. j We’re doing what the Roman Republic used to do. And wouldn’t , it be just too bad if only the thugs i knew how to use a gun? j All the same, this is only one side ■ of it. We have to defend ourselves against those who in bad faith use the phrases of freedom in order to , destroy freedom, but we have to keep : freedom itself alive, even in war. I It was only a free Parliament which gave us a government strong enough to save us. This job will make ! heavy demands on folk like you and . me.