1 DECEMBER 1939, Page 14

* * * * Others, again, asked me whether I

did not agree that all this talk about freedom and democracy was mere eye-wash, and that what we were really fighting for was the mainten- ance of the old balance of power. This question (and it must figure largely in the circulars with which the Labour Party supply their rank and file) always depresses me. Our power is our freedom, and if we lose it we shall lose our independ- ence. One gives this reply, and the questioner resumes his seat with a smile of knowing triumph—that smile of smug infallibility, of higher righteousness, which conceals an absence of knowledge and thought, and self-confidence. Such smiles make, one sad.