• BACK TO LOST IDEALS [To the Editor of THE
SPECTATOR] SLR,7--I do not think it unfair to Sir Timothy Eden to suggest that the undercurrent of his criticism contained in his letter headed " Back to Lost Ideals," falls most heavily upon those of us at. present of military age who were too young to remember the Great War. It is clearly for us of our generation to uphold those ideals of Chivalry, Freedom and Courage which he implies hive now fallen into abeyance, and as one of that generatiOn I should like to be allowed to answer some of the point's of his letter.
According to Sir Timothy we have lost all sense of values. May I suggest to him that there is really small wonder if we have, when we face up to the appalling conditions existing not only in Europe but in- most -other parts of the world, conditions which can only tend to great unrest ? He perhaps forgets when he sees us in our difficulties that the four years of the Great War have. not shown us that our ideals can be obtained by the" sacrifice of millions of lives, but if he has :forgotten this,' the Prime Minister did not and more than any one man. we owe hint our thanks' Why should we be grateful to him ? I think, because he saw clearly that at Munich we owed it to civilisation this time, to find' an alter- nitive to war against peoples ignorant of the facts and in the ipower of a man seemingly obliviOus to the disaster into which he was leading his country.. Because the Prime Miniiter adopted the course he did and refused to play a game of bluff, it does not Mean, as Sir Timothy would have us believe, that
we tremble before brute force." Apart from the fact that force of that nature produces emotions radically opposite to fear, what evidence can he adduce that the manhood of this 'country would not respond as always to any call that is made upon them, realising the while that war can never end war ?
Yes, we have our doubts and if some of us experienced feelings of relief when the agreement was reached that saved us from war, no one either here or abroad must be allowed to think that our principles can be trampled under foot or that we would not fight in defence of them knowing there to be no alternative and sadder in that knowledge.
We have been given our chance and it is now up to us to .show the Prime Minister that the price he was forced to pay for peace was not too high.—I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Greenaway House, Frognal, N.W.3. FRANCIS PERKINS.
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