PEOPLE AND THINGS
By HAROLD NICOLSON
SIR WALTER LAYTON has been warning us against 10 the danger of epitomising this war under the slogan of "a fight to destroy Hitlerism." He contends that if we persist in this over-simplification of issues we shall eventually find ourselves at cross-purposes with the German people. The implication is, I suppose, that whereas we see in the Nazi system a growth of evil which must be extirpated root and branch, the Germans, although they loathe some of the branches, rather like the root ; and that for us to insist upon complete enucleation might postpone oppor- tunities for a negotiated peace. I do not agree with Sir Walter. It is not, I hope, that I am so illiberal as to advocate the deliberate intensification and personification of enmity as a means of galvanising our national will. It is that I am convinced that unless this recurrent tumour in the German body politic be completely enucleated it will grow again. Thus, whereas I fully agree that it is imprudent to regard Hitlerism as some passing phenomenon detached from the main traditions of German life and character, yet I do certainly regard it as a morbid and malignant tumour within that tradition, and as something which must be removed by surgical rather than by homoeopathic methods. It is my firm belief that the moment will come when the German people themselves will share this conviction.
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