GATHERING CLOUDS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 18, Issue 461, 23 April 1948, Page 5

GATHERING CLOUDS

Sir,-Your leading article of April 2 is in the welcome Listener tradition of having something important to say, and saying it in a thought-provoking manner. I would, however, like to comment on two points. I am not sure of the implication of your reference to Henry Wallace, but from reports of his recent public statements, I should say he is far from thinking that war is impossible, I also wonder

how true it is to consider him a danger to his country. It is at least possible that posterity will see his seeming political naivete as true political realism on a long term view, and his willingness to forgo power for plain speaking as the stand of a man of principle. His rejection by his people may be an indictment, not of Henry Wallace, but of America’s retreat from liberalism. Again, although "resistance to preparation" for war is, like patriotism, not enough, and if at present practised by a State might well mean its disappearahice as a sovereign political entity, there is a case for the presence of at least a minority in the tradition of Tolstoi, George Lansbury, and Gandhi, to help keep the rest of us awake to the advisability of finding some substitute for war as the ultima ratio regum. In conclusion, a bouquet for your emphasis on the little things "that in the end pile up," even though it is sometimes hard to have faith that, against the stupendous pettiness of world politics, we as individuals can do much,

NEIL

SMITH

(Otorohanga).