" . . . I should like you to know
what it is I died for, and for that reason I am going to try to express my feelings and hopes. There is, I feel, both in England and America a tremendous surge of feeling, a feeling which, for want of a ben& word, I shall call goodness.' It is not expressed by the politicians or the newspapers, for it is far too deep for them. It is the heartfelt longing of all the ' middling folk' for some- thing better—a world more worthy of their children, a world more simple in its beliefs, nearer to earth and to God. I have heard it so often among soldiers in England and America, in trains, in factories in Chicago and in clubs in London, sometimes so poorly expressed that one can hardly recognise it,Ibut underlying it all there is that craving for a new life. This feeling is no less powerful or significant than the Renaissance was, and will, I hope and pray, surge over the whole world in a tidal wave—that is the ideal for which we are fighting. Now let me try to express it in practical terms.
" First, there must be friendship between nations, for on the main- tenance of peace all other things depend. This, I believe, with fanatical zeal, depends entirely on the co-operation between the British Empire and the U.S.A. This, indeed, is my personal inspiration, something worth living for, something worth dying for. From it may arise untold happiness, without it I regard the war as lost, regardless of the fate of Germany and Japan. I love the American people, for I truly know and understand them, and it is my lifelong ambition to spread that under- standing.
" Secondly, we must try to improve the lot of the poor. No sacrifice is too great for the rich to make to ensure that the poor of England have decent houses, good education, social security and a chance to live a happy life. If we in England could set out to conquer not poverty, but its attendant and unnecessary miseries, as we set out to beat Hitler in 1940, the dream world would soon come to our hands. Lastly, and perhaps most important of all, let us return to God. These last forty years we have drifted away too far ; led astray by ' realism' and ' practical living.' Let us return to the fold and guide our lives by His principles and no others.
" To accomplish this task we have one great weapon—the inherent goodness of man. I love people. I am sure that the good far, far outweighs the bad. Simplicity is stronger than cynicism and kindness than cruelty. Let the power of the world be in the hands not of the rich or of the poor, the old or the young, but the simple, the honest and the good. They are to be found in all classes, all creeds and all ages ; but, and so often, their very goodness holds them back. That is
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