The French contend (and they may be right) that they
are never incompetent about important things. They contend (and in this they are certainly right) that there is no incom- petence about their armed forces. They assert that, whereas in England inefficiency is spread in a thin layer throughout our public life, with them inefficiency is concentrated upon secondary areas. They claim that when one possesses, as they possess, remarkable gifts of concentration, it is inevitable that the perimeter of one's consciousness should become blurred. What does it matter if in time of war civilians are exposed to unnecessary inconvenience? Our great fault, in their eyes, is that we do not realise with sufficient clarity that war is an immensely serious thing. We persist in imagining that war is peace in a more inconvenient form. They sacri- fice all the conveniences of life in favour of its necessities. Nor do they appreciate or admire our attempts to maintain under war conditions some semblance of the pleasures and amenities of peace.
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