MR. CHURCHILL AND THE CAUSES OF WAR [To the Editor
of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In his broadcast last week, Mr. Winston Churchill, referring to the condition of Europe today stated, inter alia :
" Only a few hours away by air there dwells a nation of nearly seventy millions, of the most educated, scientific, disciplined people in the world who are being taught from childhood to think of war and conquest as a glorious exercise and death in battle as the noblest fate for man," &c.
Mr. Churchill was undoubtedly referring to Germany, and his description of that country may be more or less accurate.
How has Germany come to be in such a position ? After all, few persons in any country, except prehaps Japan, regard death as something to be invited whether in battle or otherwise.
A clue to the position in Germany today can, without a great deal of mental exercise, be found in the post-War misery in Germany. Branded, perforce, as the authors of the 1914/16 War, and compelled by the Peace Treaties to suffer loss of colonies, loss of home territory, deprived of the possession of arms, and with little prospect of being permitted equality' in arms with the victor Powers notwithstanding the promise implicit in the Peace Treaties that the victor powers would disarm ; faced also with the growing burden of unemployment, and with millions of young men with little or nothing to do but bemoan' their misery, it is no great cause for wonder, although it is cause for regret, that Germany has chosen rulers who are anxious to wrest, if they cal, the removal of such disabilities, and in these and similar facts we find some little explanation of the desperate condition into which Germany has got.
Surely a rational attempt to ascertain the causes of war involves an attempt to remove these causes. Has Britain not some responsibility for these causes, in the case of Germany? Britain was one of the victor Powers which imposed these conditions on Germany. Mr. Churchill had nothing to say on this topic. On the other hand he urges the creation by Britain of the strongest air force in Europe, while presumably keeping up and increasing its other naval and military forces.
Mr. Churchill might be of more service to Britain if he urged Britain to remove the causes which are likely to endanger the peace and security of Britain, in so far as Germany is concerned, apart altogether from the duty on Britain of keeping its promises to a defeated foe.—I am, yours faithfully, JOHN MCINTYRE.
67 West Regent Street, Glasgow.
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