THE DEAN OF CANTERBURY
SIR,—Sir Richard Acland's letter about the Dean of Canter- bury and his Soviet-worship expresses the kind of Parlia- mentarianism which drives non-Parliamentary persons to despair. He seems unaware that there are thousands of people with views on the war and on Russia's share in it who are not, in the rigid House of Commons sense, Tories, Liberals or Labourites. He assumes that anyone with whom he dis- agrees must belong to the political party which he himself opposes. He disagrees with Mrs. Mozley ; therefore she is a Tory. Is she? I don't know. Does he know? And, anyway, what has it to do with the point at issue?
The obstinate inability (or refusal) of professional politicians to appraise a national issue save in terms of party politics is distressing to those of us who at the moment are less con- cerned to embarrass the Government than to win the war. We are as keenly aware as Sir Richard of that Government's shortcomings ; but, unlike him, we are not impressed by the alternatives. I am not a Tory or a Churchman ; I am not a " Friend " of any cathedral nor even (though lavatory-tiling has its charm) of the National Liberal Club. But I agree with Mrs. Mozley that it is illogical for a highly paid official of England's Christian Church to support an Oriental despot of an anti-Christian State, and can sympathise with her wish to show disapproval in the most direct way possible.
Sir Richard tells us that he and his friends heard the Munich agreement extolled from almost every pulpit in the land. They should not rush about so, but stay at home and form their own opinions. If all the best Liberals spend their Sundays racing frenziedly from church to church, it is easy to see why Liberalism is in such a poor way.—Yours, &c.,
Previous page
