26 MAY 1939, Page 16

Such emotions are described by good Conservatives as "sentimental." Yet

assuredly it was not by realism alone that we founded and maintained our Empire. I can appre- ciate and even respect the grim solicitude of Mr. MacDonald. I can understand those who, while admitting that we have lost honour, argue that we are not strong enough to be honourable in 1939. Such an admission is not heroic, but it pays some tribute to truth. What is unendurable is the casuistry of those who deny, not courage only, but truth also ; and who seek to pretend that the proposals of the White Paper are some manly compromise between desires and ambitions of equal validity and equal need. Yet Mr. Crossley is anything but muddle-headed or insincere ; as I listened to him I found myself repeating:

"He is crazed with the spell of far Arabia They have stolen his wits away."

In this discomfiture I found comfort in a phrase of Chaim Weizmann : —" We have waited two thousand years. We shall wait for a few more years. And in the fullness of time God will keep His promises to His people."