SIR,—Mr. G. M. Young has raised a point of the
utmost importance. We have to educate our would-be masters, the German people: Any real defeat should be education enough for such devout believers in the last argument of Kings and Fiihrers. But it will not be enough. Because a defeat now, as last time, will be explained away in political terms. We have, however, a means of education that we did not have in 1918. The hate and envy with which the German people regarded us, the French and the Americans are not likely to be abated in 19.10. We shall have again-defeated the natural rulers of the
world by means whose potency they can appreciate—tenacity, warlike skill and political sagacity. But the re-education of the German people will not come easily to us. It should be entrusted to the " Germanic " victims of the Germans—the Dutch and the Norwegians. These peoples are good at all the things that the Germans are good at ; they are "Nordic," whatever the Germans mean by Nordic ; they are good at a great many things that the Germans are not good at at all. To persuade the Germans that the bombing of Rotterdam, the seizure of Oslo and Bergen were crimes and errors is the beginning of wisdom. I am all in favour of an occupation of Berlin by a Polish army, for until the Eastern Germans have been cured of their ascendancy-com- plex there will be no peace for Eastern Europe. But most Germahs do not live in East Prussia or Pomerania. The Rhinelanders, the Westphalians, the Bavarians must be re-civilised, and the Dutch and the Norwegians are the people to do it ; Catholic Dutch in the Catholic parts ; Protestant Dutch and Norwegians in the Protestant parts—here is a mission field as important for the future of Europe as it was in the days when English and Irish missionaries brought the Gospel to
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