THINKING AHEAD.

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 114, 29 August 1941, Page 4

THINKING AHEAD.

Sir,-I was with you all the way in your editorial of July 18, until I came to the last patagraph. 1 thought we were off to a brave start, towards a brave new world, until you said, " whether capitalists or socialists, liberals or conservatives, we know that nothing can be done till Hitlerism is annihilated. Unless we keep that forever in our minds, planning is mere moonshine, and talking a waste of ait." Surely this is showing a lack of faith in our ability to win the war which is almost analogous to the spinster who wouldn’t have a "glory box" because she didn’t think she would win hertself a husband? One of these fine days, God willing, we shell awake to find that the war is over, that Hitlerism has been annihilated; but we may then be as ufprepared for peace as we were unprepared for war in September, 1939. Surely this is the problem to which the thoughtful minds among us must address themselves... Only yesterday (July 15), Mr. Churchill in his speech, talked of "a G¢omradeship of suffering, endurance and triumph." If one result of this war is ‘to bring about a constructive social revolution inspired by such a comradeship, it will have done more for Britain and the British Empire than decades of class struggle afid political agitation could have dofe. In it there may be the foundations of a new ofder which will help to redeem the world. But surely now is the time to do the planning. -TERTIUS (Wellington). We agree that it would have beén mofe accurate to say that " will remain done if Hitlerism is not annihi lated."’-Ed.