It is a welcome symptom that Messrs. Kegan Paul should
now be reviving their series in a different and more topical form. The new pamphlets are edited by Francis Williams, one of the few men who really possess a " Today and .Tomorrow " mind, since in thinking of tomorrow he does not forget that yesterday had some good points as well. The new series, which concentrates upon problems of reconstruction, is grouped under the general title of " The Democratic Order." I have been reading this week one of the more recent pamphlets entitled Reconstruction and Peace. The author of this lucid memorandum is stated to be a " well-known public man," and hides his fame under the simple pseudonym of Balbus, the man who built a wall. It is a good wall, clear and strong, and will help to canalise the spate of confused thinking which is today depositing layers of mud upon the public mind. Balbus must be not only a famous but also an energetic man. He has added to his wall a further course of bricks in the shape of an article in the Fortnightly Review which he calls " Reconstruction and- the U.S.S.R." It will generally be agreed that the Prime Minister is right in himself refraining and in discouiaging his colleagues in the Govern- ment from indulging at the present moment in any detailed forecasts. of the shape of things to come. The firm fine lines of the Atlantic Charter provide for the moment all the official guidance which any sensible man should require. Yet it is fitting that in the interval unofficial discussion should be carried on upon the problems of reconstruction, if only in the hope that when the distant day of decision eventually arrives the public shall not be quite so ignorant of the true proportions of the problem as they were in December, 1918.
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