A change of method was evidently essential. I adopted the
Socratic method. " So you are not prepared," I asked them, " to fight for Democracy?" " You bet we're not," they answered. " Then surely," I suggested winningly, " you must agree that it is illogical to spend so many of your spare hours training to be soldiers if you are not prepared to fight when the moment comes?" " But who said," they protested, " that we are not prepared to fight? We're mad keen to fight." " But what do you want to fight for?" I asked them. " We don't want to fight for anything in particular ; we want to fight Hitler."
This reply is not one which is provided for in the admir- able Notes for Speakers issued from time to time by the Central Office of the Conservative Party. I was discon- certed. " But why do you want to fight Hitler?" I asked them. " Well, he's treated us like a piece of dirt. He let us down after Munich ; he broke his word. That's why we want to get at him."
" And what about Italy?" I asked them, feeling entranced.
" Oh, Italy," they answered, " one does not count Italy either way."
" Oh, but one should," I warned them, " one really should." They smiled.
" And if war comes," I continued, " you would be pre- pared to serve overseas?" " Yes, we should like that." " But where particularly? Egypt, India, Africa?" They thought for a moment. " I know where I should like to fight," the younger one said suddenly, " I should like to fight in Germany " I lay there, afterwards, listening to the sharp lap of Lymington water against the hull. It had been an exhaust- ing day. Wind and rain and the howl of angry waters. Behind it all had ached our incessant unhappiness, that constant churning in one's mind of fears and facts, of statistics and anxieties. Everything was quiet now. My two territorials were fast asleep. I went on deck. The little boats around me lay silent at their moorings with a single light at their mast heads. A single light. A riding light. I climbed into my bunk feeling happier than I have felt for many months.
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