I do not deny that the Russian adventure has dealt
a heavy blow to German self-confidence, and I am well aware that, in the high hysterical stratosphere to which the German soul has soared, courage can change quite quickly into panic and a sense of destiny into a sense of doom. Yet the German army is still the tremendous apparatus of the nation, and there are many leaders, such as Rommel, who remain terrific men. Nor do I feel that it is anything but fantastic, in this year 1942, to forecast the future design of Central Europe or even to theorise about the material from which it can be constructed. When the collapse comes a great cloud of smoke and dust will hang over Europe, and the salvage-parties will be able to do little more at first than hurry dimly around the edge. The problem for many months will not be a problem of drawing frontiers or constructing governments and social systems ; it will essentially be a problem of collecting and transporting fcrod. And in determining that problem it will be Sir Frederick Leith Ross's committee which will have the decisive voice.
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