INTERNATIONAL YOUTH
Six,—" Czechoslovak Soldier " has made an important point, with which I am sure Mr. Harold Nicolson will wholeheartedly agree. The problem is not only to overcome the forsakenness or frustration of that section of my generation which longs to make itself constructively useful, but still more to rescue a whole European generation which for the last decade has been submerged by the political floods of our times. The remnant of this generation will break its long silence when peace is rebuilt. We must be listening. We must make sure that the youth of one country can hear the youth of another. We must realise that lasting peace will depend on friendship and unity between nations, and we must think now how this friendship and unity is to be secured.
I find all around me a lack of interest in foreign affairs. What does the British Commonwealth mean to the British soldier? What does a New League of Nations mean to the man in the street? Terrifyingly little. The public must learn that the Beveridge Plan is utterly dependent on international friendship, as are all plans for national improvement. They must, learn, too, that international friendship depends on them ; it can only be built up by their patient effort. Security is no positive ideal: it is the foster-brother of appeasement. " Safety First" must give way to a more realistic slogan: "First Things First." We must pursue an active policy which will anticipate the movement of events ; it is better to have a fence at the top of the cliff than .an ambulance at the bottom.
I would suggest that we need, in addition to a paper edited by the young for the young, a new political party whose prime object would be friendship and_unity between the progressive forces in all countries ; whose policy would be to rescue the intelligence of the submerged generation and to restore their usefulness ; whose programme would be primarily concerned with international reconstruction and a dynamic
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