BOOKS OF THE DAY
Wendell Willkie's World
One World. By Wendell Wilkie. 'Cassel!. .7s. 6d., Tars book is a portent. It is written by the titular leader of the Republican Party; it is a plea for world unity and for a moral approach to world problems; it has sold almost two million copies in the United States, in addition to being syndicated in many newspapers. Can anyone imagine a similar event in the America of 1920? If it is true that people who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it, perhaps it is also true that people who can- not learn from one tragedy are capable of learning from two. It is not only in the United States that the repetition was necessary, or that the renewed lesson appears to have been taken to heart.
One World is Mr. Willkie's account of his airplane trip round the globe, which he made a year ago. He -paused briefly in North Africa, the Middle East, Russia and China. He did not touch ground in Western Europe. Three main points are reiterated throughout the book : first, the smallness of the world which we now inhabit ; second, the speed of social political and economic change in the eastern half of that world ; third, the obligation upon all Western peoples to learn these facts at once, and to teach themselves to act magnanimously in world affairs. " America," says Mr. Willkie, "must choose one of three courses after this war : narrow nationalism, which inevitably means the ultimate loss of our own libertyinternational imperialism, which means the sacrifice of some Other nation's liberty ; or the creation of a world in which there shall be an equality of opportunity for every race and every nation." He adds that he is " convinced the American people will choose, by overwhelming majority, the last of these courses."
He is convinced of this because he believes his first two points can be proved beyond doubt. He writes that the net impression of his flight, which covered 31,000 miles, " was not one of distance from other peoples, but of closeness to them. . . . The world has become small not only on the map, but also in the minds of men. All around the world there are some ideas which millions and millions of men hold in _common, almost as much as if they lived in the same town." Not all of these ideas which are held in common bode well for the future. For example, Mr. Willkie reports that in the Middle East, Russia and China he found " every- where a growing spirit of fervid nationalism, a disturbing thing to one who believes that the only hope of the world lies in the opposite . trend."
This brings him to his second point, the rapidity of the changes in social, economic and political thinking through the Eastern world. The fervid and dangerous nationalism can only he countered, he thinks, if we of the West offer to the world a fervid and sincere internationalism. It is at this point that Mr. Willkie makes his well-known criticism of the colonial systems of today. The criti- cism seems to him a necessary part of his world argument. It is put forward persuasively and without any thought that the solution is easy to find. " I know," he writes, " this problem can be over- simplified. I know that the retention of points such as Suez, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the roads through Asia Minor to the East obviously, if our Western democracy is not to be threatened by hostile forces, must be kept in both friendly and stabilised hands. Likewise, I know there is much historical and even present- day justification for the current ' protective' colonial system. Prag- matically, however, in view of the present ferment which is going • on, it is a question whether that system can be maintained. Idealistic- ally, we must face the fact that the system is completely antipathetic to all the principles for which we claim to fight. Furthermore, the more we preach those principles, the more we stimulate the ferment that endangers the system. . . . Somehow, with a new approach and a patient wisdom, the question must be answered or a new leader will arise with a fierce fanaticism who will coalesce these dis- contents." This is the heart of the argument of One World. Mr.
Willkie believes with all the strength of his nature that peace is im- possible unless we offer to the Eastern world true freedom within an international society. He does not pretend this is easy, or that it can be done immediately ; he does say it is necessary, and that it must be done fast. All his emphasis on the rapidity of change in the outlook of Eastern man relates to this point. Again and again he comes back to his belief that " the change has been so quick that many of us have missed it." Mr. Winkle is not among those who see only the faults of their friends and allies. He applies the same sense of urgency, the same demand for a high-minded interpretation of the purposes of the war, to his own country. "The defence of our (American) democracy," he writes, " against the forces that threaten it from witlibut has made some of its failures to function at home glaringly apparent. Our very proclamations of what we are fighting for have rendered our own inequities self-evident. When we talk of freedom and oppor- tunity for all nations, the mocking paradoxes in our own society become so clear they can no longer be ignored. If we want to talk about freedom, we must mean freedom for others as well as ourselves, and we must mean freedom for everyone inside our frontiers as well as outside."
Mr. Willkie's three main points about Russia are a sign of his willingness to demand a " new approach and a patient wisdom" from the United States as well as from the other Allies. " First," he writes, " Russia is an effective society. It works. . . . Second, Russia is our Ally in this war. . . . Their hatred of Fascism and the Nazi system is deep and real and bitter. . . . Third, we must work with Russia after the war. At least it seems to me that there can be no continued peace unless we learn to do so." This is an in- gratiating book. It argues its case with fervour, and at the same time with wisdom. It is informed throughout with the energy, the enthusiasm, and the interest in all things human which char- acterize Wendell Willkie. It should give heart and hope even to readers who disagree with some of its conclusions.
HERBERT AGAR.
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