Five Years
RIDAY carried the war into its sixth year for Poland, Sunday for Britain and France. For Britain and France it brought the hope of an early end to suffering; for Poland hope certainly but also a great anxiety. It would ‘be heartless to ask the Poles to believe that somehow or other their path will soon be made smooth and straight; heartless and useless. They are entangled, and know that they are entangled, in the meshes of their own past, the conflicts and contradictions of the promises made by their friends, the disunity in their own ranks, and the conditions attached to the offer of co-opera-tion by their only powerful neighbour. And in the meantime they are suffering as.no other peoplewith the probable but not quite certain exception of the Jewshave suffered this century. We must not insult them with hollow words of sympathy or offer them comfort that no nation at present has the means of conveying to them. We know, as they know, that a completely just and satisfactory peace is impossible for them short of a miracle, and that miracles are rare. But for Poland as for the other nations overtrun by Germany — the most useful line of contemplation is not what kind of peace now lies ahead but what kind would have been ahead if the war had taken a different turn. Victory can never bring more than rough justice to » any nation. It does not bring back the dead or restore shattered lives or compensate those whose losses are measured in faith or in tears. There is a peace in sight for all the united nations that is ten thousand times better than seemed likely three years ago; a possible settlement for Poland too that will | bring sunshine as soon as all her people agree to open the same windows. There are signs that they soon may agree. At’ pre--sent, however, the war goes on and the more _ points of friction we develop the longer it will last. Friction is in fact the only remaining risk, and a world that has come through, the last five years has not a big reserve . of patience to draw on.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 272, 8 September 1944, Page 7
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364Five Years New Zealand Listener, Volume 11, Issue 272, 8 September 1944, Page 7
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