Europe and Britain
It is a misfortune that owing to the importance of the war news, and the general pressure on space, more prominence could not be given in the daily papers to the very striking address Sir Samuel Hoare, who has now returned to Madrid, delivered to his con- stituents at Chelsea last Friday. Situated as he has been for four years in a neutral capital, through which men of all nations con- tinually pass, Sir Samuel has unique opportunities for observing the trends of European thought and measuring European hopes and fears. It is clear that high hopes are set—without complete con- fidence—on this country, and what it may do for Europe after the war. The United States lies far outside Europe. Russia's stability is too recent for her to be looked to as model. Britain's stability is historic, and a citizen of one country quoted by the Ambassador, which had twenty-three governments in fourteen months, may well hope that Britain here has something to teach the Continent. But will Britain keep herself strong after the war? Has Britain the imagination, or the knowledge, to enable her to realise what is wanted from her and hoped of her? What Europe wants—as Sir Samuel at Madrid interprets Europe's half-realised needs—is the consciousness of a common purpose that will give back to European civilisation, a civilisation that was basically Christian, the fundamental and spiritual unity it has lost. Can Great Britain, with its ex- perience of membership of a Commonwealth where just that unity is profoundly real, help here? The ultimate demand is for the restoration of a belief in the sanctity of human personality— precisely what the Nazis have set themselves most ruthlessly to destroy. Britain is being asked for bread, both material and spiritual. It will give its suppliants—what?
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