THE ONLY GERMANY SIR,—Rom Landau's letter has surely clarified the

issue of war aims " more than any other pronouncement on the subject in any correspondence. May I press it one step further to a practical point, which must be settled unless our formulation of war aims is to remain a sentimental generalisation? On the one hand, we are fighting to destroy Hitlerism, but have announced that we are willing to negotiate with any German government " whose word can be trusted." On the other hand, we are insisting that any post-war settlement must restore to Poland her pre-war independence and territory.

But is there any German government—either Goering or the Reichswehr, or even a German Communist regime— which would (except in the circumstances of another Versailles diktat) restore Danzig and the Corridor? And is not the real crux of the present situation that, however dissatisfied a certain section of the German people may be with Hitter on other scores, they are solidly of his opinion as regards the Polish matter and the justice of his claims there?

This is anything but an academic question. It was the status of Poland in relation to her neighbours which was the occasion (if not the cause) of this war. Unless we are very careful, we shall make it potentially the occasion of the next war, before this one is a month old.—I am, &c.,

HUGH Ross WILLIAMSON.

SIR,—May I, as one who has neither studied nor lived in Germany and has no intimate knowledge of the Second Reich, the Weimar Republic or the Third Reich, yet venture the opinion that Mr. Rom Landau falls into an error when he says that we are fighting the belief of a whole nation that it has a mission to " save " the world. This surely is not so. We leave the fighting of beliefs to the Inquisition. We are fighting, not because of beliefs that Germans hold, but because in trying to put their beliefs into practice they have violated the integrity of another nation. This is quite a different thing.

Mr. Landau himself admits the existence of " the other Germany " when he says that there are Germans who, while accepting Hitler's Weltanschauung, yet loathe his methods. This, of course, is the crux of the matter. It is Hitler's methods, his undisguised appeal to brute force in order to advance his unprincipled aims, his ruthless violation of all that makes possible law and order between the nations, that

have brought us into the War. G. T. CHAPPELL. 59 Five Mile Drive, Oxford.

Sta,—I, who stand an excellent chance of being killed in this war, was dismayed and shocked by the attitude of Messrs. Landau and Cripps in your issue last week. Let me deal briefly with the reasons for my dismay and shock.

Mr. Landau, who accuses the German nation of having a Weltanschauung of world domination by force, seems to assume implicitly that Germany is the only nation against whom this charge can be made. The history of Britain, even though we may employ the technique of the old school tie nowadays, is an example of a nation who has gained great power in the world through fair means and foul. And the influential political thinkers in her history have done little to condemn her policies ; indeed Bacon in some of his essays was a Nazi if ever there was one. Again, if their Kultur seems to Germans to be worthy of world-wide consump- tion, I reply that no great nation is exempt from this failing. Ask any intelligent Indian and he will confirm the point. If We are to make progress in the conduct of our political affairs we must learn at all costs to avoid thinking of our nation as a virgin defending her virtue against a mob of infidels. In politics we are all infidels together.

If Mr. Landau's assumptions are faulty, the implications of his letter are positively unsound. Unless I miss my guess widely, Mr. Landau, in the event of the allies being victorious, will favour a policy of treating Germany as a conquered nation, allowing her no free political decision. My comment on this policy is this: if we protested against the Nazi treat- ment of Austria and Czecho-Slovakia, in reason bound we must protest against this policy. It is inhumane, it is futile, and it is politically unsound. We shall need a constructive view of world politics after this war, both in the treatment of Germany and in regard to other important problems. We ought not to have time for mere revenge.

Turning to the letter of Mr. Cripps, my objection here is that the writer does not view the history of the pre-war period in a sufficiently wide perspective. Apart from the philosophic difficulty of avoiding an infinite regression in assigning his- torical cause and effect, surely the fact that Germany attained national status in a world, where most of the important sources of raw materials, &c., had been appropriated by other nations, is of some relevance to this discussion. In my judgement it renders the view of Mr. Cripps completely useless, except as a commentary on the narrow political scene of those vital years.

In conclusion, I should like to say this. If many young people in this country knew that the German nation was to be treated in the same way as the Nazis have treated the Czechs, they would not view the prospect of dying in this war to abolish Hitlerism so calmly. I propose fighting in this war because I believe that the Nazi Party does not represent the highest good in German life and for no other reason. I shall feel my life has been sacrificed in vain, if the attitude of mind I have been discussing in this letter

prevails.—Yours sincerely, FREDERICK HOLDEN. Ewerby, Nr. Sleaford, Lincs.

SIR,—It is easy to condemn a nation wholesale, and it may be difficult to differentiate when talking of Germany. Mr. Landau's letter, however, cannot be allowed to pass un- challenged because it does harm to the British cause. Mr. Chamberlain and Lord Halifax have repeatedly stated the simple truth that we fight Hitler, and all he stands for, while we have no quarrel with the German people as such. Surely, Mr. Landau will not divert us from this course. If he were right—that is, if we were fighting " the belief of a whole nation "—one might well despair ; only annihilation of the enemy would bring any solution to such a problem.

But, of course, Mr. Landau is wrong. His assumptions are based on the flimsiest of grounds. He says that he " never met a German—not even among the intellectuals—who did not subscribe wholeheartedly to the doctrine of the intrinsic German supremacy." Later on, he admits that there exists " a small minority which does not share these views." He quotes his German governess and the old proverb of the simpletons: Am deutschen Wesen wird die Welt genesen. No doubt there have been "Nazis " long before Hitler, and I guess there will be some long after his sudden death. This, however, does not prove that such a belief represents the true genius of the German nation. Houston Stewart Chamberlain, for instance, was a pre-Nazi " Nazi," and so was the man who coined the phrase: Right or Wrong, My Country. What do such facts tell us of the British genius? I think even Mr. Landau will agree if I answer: nothing whatsoever. From similar " proofs," however, concluded Mr. Landau, that Germany, as a whole, has always loved and will always love the Nazi doctrine.

The Times Literary Supplement summed up Mr. Landau's last book by saying : " Mr. L. loves us in spite of our faults, but it is difficult to see why." His letter against the German people shows that he hates what he fancies that nation to be. Why he does, I do not know. There is a black, disturbing, perhaps even coarse, side to the German picture. But why pretend that this represents the real Germany? Goethe', Germany has nothing to do with Hitler's. Does Mr. Landau know his Goethe or his Lessing, his Bach or Beethoven? And as he speaks of the German Republic—why does he not mention Gustav Stresemann instead of giving us nursery rhymes?

" We have no quarrel with the German people, but there can be no lasting peace until Nazism and all it stands for, in oppression, cruelty and broken faith, is banished from the earth." This case, as stated by Mr. Eden, is so clear, our cause so pure, that our eyes must not be blurred by either self-righteousness or hate.—Yours truly, F. W. Pica. Beaufort Gardens, S.W. 3.