PEOPLE AND THINGS
By HAROLD NICOLSON
ISPENT most of last week delivering lectures and making .1 speeches. My audiences were numerous and varied. They included university professors, undergraduates, elderly Liberals, young Conservatives, left-wing intellectuals and, on one occasion, a gay phalanx of soldiers. What struck me most was that the attitudes of these audiences, and the questions they asked, showed little variation between London and the provinces, between the educated and the uneducated. The majority response, upon every occasion, was the same. I should interpret it as follows : " We did not want this war We did everything—perhaps even too much—to get out of it. Yet after March r 5th it was clear that this country would have to choose between resistance or surrender. Inevitably we had to choose resistance and we must now go on resisting to the end. We have only one war-aim, namely to win this war. We have only one peace aim, namely to prevent such a thing happening again. Now let us get on with the job."
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