THE CASE FOR OPTIMISM
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR]
SIR,—As an old reader of The Spectator, I am amazed that your correspondent signing himself C. A. Cameron should insinuate that your valued journal is a " Jitter-bug." This is an odious euphony, and conveys nothing to the educated mind.
It is easy to talk about optimism, but there is such a thing as " blind optimism "; and nothing could be worse than to be so short-sighted as to fail to observe the danger towards which things are tending : and then through unpreparedness lead the country towards disaster.
How does your correspondent know " there will be no war before December comes "? On what grounds does he claim that " Our leading Statesmen have banished all pessi- mism "? If it is to be a " Jitter-bug " to anticipate a possible war at an early date, and if it is to be a pessimist to issue gas masks by the million, to present corrugated steel sheets and sandbags to every town, to implore every household to bury itself a hundred feet underground at the first hoot of a siren—then I venture to say that our " leading Statesmen " are not only the champion " Jitter-bugs," but the deepest, direst pessimists on earth.
No, Sir, Mr. C. A. Cameron may possess abounding per- sonal courage, but I should advise him to address his force- ful remarks to the A.R.P. official who stated the other day that " Unless you put the fear of God into the people " they would take no steps towards rendering our National Defence efficient.
I commend the courage of The Spectator for ventilating the free and unfettered ooinion of its readers ; and thank Heaven we are still a democratic country, and not the gramo- phone of some possible dictator.—I am, Sir, yours faithfully,
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