A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK
THE fuss the French are making about Dr. Schumacher's visit to this country has very little justification, if any at all. On the other hand the rather excessive fuss made here about the visit does give hypersensitive critics across the Channel some excuse. They did not, of course, distinguish (and again they had some excuse) between the Labour Party, which invited Dr. Schumacher, and the Labour Government, which did not, though it showed him rather marked attention. It may not be a bad thing to have this reminder, on what is essentially a secondary' issue, of what French psychology at present is—not that we can make undue concession to it, but that we may be especially on guard against unnecessary exacerbation. As to the Schumacher visit itself, it has undoubtedly done good—in Germany because it signifies the resumption of some sort of contact with the outside world and the end of what was being felt as rigid and resolute ostracism, and here because it has brought a wider and more instructed understanding of Germany's political, as distinct from her economic, problems. This can easily shade off into senti- mental and uncritical sympathy ; to be conscious of that danger is the best way to avoid it.
• * * *
Previous page
