British Books in War-time
In opening the British Books Exhibition which is to tour the United States, the American Ambassador on Wednesday paid a graceful compliment to the craftsminship of the producers and the high literary standard of the books chosen. When he added that he hoped it would soon be possible to relax restrictions .on the paper and labour needed by the publishing trade he was saying something that will be warmly endorsed not only by publishers and authors, but by all who realise the vast, incalculable part played by ideas and the written word in moulding public opinion and defending civilisation against attack. There is no exaggeration in his suggestion that Mein Kampf and Spengler's Decline of the West largely determined the character of the German assault ; and books are as much needed to help make the peace as they helped the enemy to make the war. Mr. Winant welcomed organisations for the export of British books to America and American books to Britain—to aid the movement in one direction is to aid it in the other. There are no better missionaries than good books and, it is proper to add, good periodicals. Our government has been singularly short-sighted in choosing to cut down the small supply of paper which would satisfy the requirements of the book trade. In doing so it has starved a form of nourishment which is scarcely less essential than food, and is peculiarly necessary in war-time to fortify the spirit of the people and to maintain the intellectual activity without which no effort can be fruitfuL
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