16 NOVEMBER 1945, Page 4

In the lecture he gave at Oxford a few days

ago on "Some Political Consequences of the Atom Bomb" Professor E. L. Woodward opened up fields of thought into which I would gladly pursue him if space were available. As it is I can only chase him down one side- track. He suggests at one point a serious official—or, failing that, unofficial—inquiry into the causes of war, at a cost of perhaps £3o,00o. "I should suggest," he says," getting together a small group of people, including a psychologist, a historian, a philosopher, a lawyer, an anthropologist, a business man, a civil servant." This body, I gather, would not itself conduct the inquiry, but simply work out the lines for it. It is a suggestive idea, and Professor Woodward is not speaking without preliminary knowledge of the causes of war, for he is at present engaged on the preparation of a series of British docu- ments on the origin of this war, similar to those so ably edited by Dr. Gooch and Dr. Temperley in the case of the last war.