In England Now

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 81, 10 January 1941, Page 4

In England Now

E have had to condense the remark\X/ able letter on Page 10 reprinted from our contemporary, the ABC Weekly: reprinted, we confess at once, without authority. But we are sure that our contemporary takes the same view as we do about the matter, viz. that such a letter belongs to everybody whose heart it will warm. By printing and circulating it throughout Australia the ABC Weekly has done something for the common cause that it is impossible to estimate in material terms. We feel that we are doing the same thing by making it available throughout New Zealand. Although we are not able to say that we have cut nothing important out, we have left enough in to accelerate the laziest pulse. For Professor Hancock says this to us: Think of England every day, as you should; grieve over her, as you must; but for God’s sake don’t despair of her. Think straight. See things as they are. Grieve for the lost lives and shattered treasures. Brood if you can’t help it over the lunacies to which the human race has descended. But don’t brood ‘over the destruction of England; it will not be destroyed. Don’t go about thinking that — the people live in darkness and terror: they live above the darkness and the terror. Don’t lie awake weeping over the ruin of an Empire; it was never so united. Never therefore so strong. Never so right. Never therefore so confident. Nor does he say any of these things without giving his reasons. There is not a trace in his letter of the optimism that floats on its own air. When he says that England is strong he says why it is strong — what it means for the leader and the people to work together. When he says that they no longer fear "attack in depth" he explains that it is because they have defence in depth — parttime soldiers, citizen-soldiers, producer-sold-iers; everybody working or fighting, or working and fighting, without thought or knowledge of class or calling (and without very much thought of age or condition). So he is happy, and he tells us to be happy. It is the great hour-for Britain, for liberty, for justice, and for civilisation. ™"~