1 DECEMBER 1939, Page 14

Such, I found, was the general response I met with,

whether from a Regius Professor or from a young clerk in the Army Pay Department. It represents, I should suppose, some 70 per cent. of the opinion in the country in this winter of 1939. The initial mood- of dismay, dislocation and depression, has been succeeded by a mood of grim fatalism. The emotions of fear, anger or hatred seem to be entirely absent ; even perplexity has for the moment been numbed ; I should describe the mood as one of resigned acceptance coupled with patient resolution. It is, I suppose, the sort of mood which at this stage of the war is most necessary and useful. It will be succeeded by other moods as the war progresses and becomes more intense.