SIR,—Far be it from me to speak ill of the
human race ; they might not like it, and where should I be then? But I doubt if they have the power of fighting furiously and thinking calmly at the same time. I have noticed that even in the mild heat of a General Election people are not always just to their opponents. And when I read the letters of Lord Vansittart and Mr. George Richards, and the speech of the former n the House of Lords, I cannot but recall a remark made as a sort of last moment S.O.S. by the Brains Trust last week. The question was something about German psychology and " could the Germans ever become " something or other ; the answer was that such questions might profitably be addressed to the Brains Trust ten years after the war was over.
Even members of the Government, being human, seem to go a little wrong in the head. More than a year ago various bodies, in Parliament and out, led largely by Miss Rathbone, were imploring the Government to do something to facilitate the escape of Jews from the most ghastly of all Nazi atrocities and give them asylum in British territory. The Government's answers were not merely sticky and hesitating. They not only pointed out the real difficulties of the undertaking, but some them added that to rescue any large number of Jews from massacre and bring them to British territory would be dangerous. It might cause Labour troubles! Or again, it might breed anti-semitism! Would it be more prudent to leave the victims where they were, and content urselves with hanging the murderers afterwards?
Wars are breeders of lies and delusions. We do not lie like the azis, but we deceive ourselves a good deal and indulge in many foolish earns. Might it not be well to begin by grasping firmly two plain ens; (i) The Germans will probably start another war if they have the c.bance ; we must see that they do not have the chance.
(ii) We must eventually be reconciled with the Germans. There are seventy million of them in the heart of Europe, and there can be no peace or happiness for anyone while they are still unreconciled enemies.
The two requirements are not impossible to reconcile ; but the man ho would reconcile them must keep his head.—Yours faithfully,
GILBERT MURRAY.
Previous page
