14 OCTOBER 1949, Page 3

Democracy for Export ?

There is no doubt of the value of the work Wilton Park is doing. During the war, as is generally known, this fine estate near Beacons- field, with the buildings old and new on it, was used for short educational courses, bearing particularly on the theory and practice of democracy in Britain, for picked men in all the German prisoners of war camps in Great Britain. There was a small but able permanent staff, and lecturers of some distinction from outside were enlisted. When the prisoners had gone home the work still continued on a smaller'scale with parties of Germans—politicians, professors, business men, journalists—selected by the Control Corn- mission and brought over at the expense of the Foreign Office. In the past week a party of special importance, including Ministers from various Land Governments, members of the Berlin City Council, editors of leading newspapers, has been at Wilton Park, listening to speakers as varied as Lord Henderson, Lord and Lady Davidson, Mr. R. C. K. Ensor, Mr. R. H. S. Grossman and others, and engaging in a mixture of discussion and brains trust on British and German questions with the editors of six weekly reviews. The value of the contacts was manifest. There is no desire to impose British forms of democracy on Germany, but it is well that Germans should understand what they are.