LANSBURY PACIFISTS
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Permit me to say that your leader last week misunder- stands the case of the " Lansbury pacifists " when it states that their hope of averting war is based " very largely on frightening the nation out of it."
Fear is the raison d'être of our armaments, as indeed of everyone's, and intensification of this emotion can but lead to intensification of rearmament. " Sufficient is thine arm alone, and our defence is sure," is sung heartily by our people at the annual commemoration of the armistice. " Lansbury pacifists " believe that full comprehension of these words will dismiss all occasion of fear, and thus our country could show the way out of the present security race, which, true to the characteristics of the vicious circle, ends in every one feeling less secure than before. The chief hope for averting war is -for one of the peace-loving—otherwise satiated— Powers to take steps towards securing international justice. Great Britain's circumstances give her a unique opportunity here. She could, for instance, express her readiness to place her colonial possessions outside the orbit of competing imperialisms. But fear and reliance on salvation through armaments obscure opportunities for constructive peace-making.
Pacifists may legitimately exploit the air terror by pointing out to a nominally Christian country the things they are preparing, in the name of security, to visit on other countries in certain circumstances.
May I say, Sir, that it would be most interesting if you, in the light of the sincere Christian faith it is obvious you hold, would justify, on Christian grounds, the seeking of security through superior adeptness in inventing and using insanitary bombs ?—Yours faithfully, H. W. CHENEY. Arden Vale, 129 St. Bernard's Road, Olton, Birmingham.
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