A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
vvards, villainy will often behave as you show you expect p Ira to behave. If you show that you respect him and expect 01M to behave like a gentleman, his conduct will sometimes undergo a remarkable transformation for the better in response to such an attitude." It may be a well-established principle ,cf. Psychology that individuals—sometiMes—respond to treatment on these lines; it-is surely a well-established principle of statesmanship that nations never do, and that it would be Particularly inadvisable to apply it to a totalitarian. Asian revolutionary government. It didn't work with Hitler, with Mussolini, with the Japanese or with Stalin; and to attempt to solve the world's problems by (as it were) making the school ht.Illy a prefect would be to court disillusionment, even if there w,aS only one school bully. It's no good putting people on their honour if they don't know what honour is, or setting them what you think is a good example if they are capable of interpreting your conduct only in terms of weakness or „exPediency. In the interest of the latter, China will no doubt oe admitted to UNO in time, but if we shaped our policy towards her or any other power in the light of Mr. Bower's ,recommendations, people would soon begin to take us for even Digger fools than we are. They wouldn't be far wrong, either.
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