WAR AND MR. CHURCHILL
[To the Editor of •THE SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Mr. Winston Churchill's broadcast talk had a strangely familiar sound. Most of his speech, and some Of his sonorous periods, might have been quoted from the Naval debates of 25 years ago, did one substitute the word " Aeroplanes" for " Battleships." We have heard it all before.
What he did not tell us, however, was the ground on which he bases his preisumptions. No doubt he has access to the information of our Intelligence Department, who should know what Germany (the potential enemy to whom he referred) is doing : if he has evidence that she is rearming with the intention of attacking Great Britain, let him produce it.
Historians will probably confirm the now generally accepted view that the Great War was not deliberately planned by any nation, but while our statesmen were warily treading among the -armed camps of Europe, the guns accidently went off.
Why does _he think that Germany wants to attack us ? Not for our treasure : the last War showed that assets be2ome a liability when the victor tries to collect them : an enemy tan no more remove a nation's material resources, without Peril to his own, than he can our British Isles to Canada, Which Mr:: Churchill rightly said was insuperably difficult. Our -gold reserves would cost more -to- collect than their Value, and our colhnies;' Unless -surrendered willingly, would be a thorn in the flesh. We have no treasure-which would he 'worth fighting for that can be transferred without loss to the
'victor. •
To revise the injustices. of the Versailles Treaty ? Then Jet the nations who imposed it remove this cause of quarrel by a long overdue just revision of its terms. Our citizens are tired of mere rhetoric, no matter- how highly placed the speaker may be, but are conipeteat to assess- the value of evidence. If our Government..know that we are in military peril, as the speeches of some of our statesmen would appear to suggest, let them table the facts, and we will judge as to their value. Till that is done, we will assume that Germany has also learned, as we have, the lessons of the late War, and will sleep quietly in our beds at night in spite of all that the war-monger tells us.—I am, yours faithfully,
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