A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
IWROTE last week of the remarkable unity of this country in face of the crisis. Now —. We have not begun yet to know what the country thinks. Men who are still hanging their heads in humiliation have not found words. For the moment they borrow Leon Blum's : " I am divided between cowardly relief and utter shame." One of the great books of the present century is The Making of a State, by T. G. Masaryk. Who is to write the companion volume, The Breaking of a State? I could suggest some candidates, but refrain. Instead let me add a comment made to me on another volume : " To think that five years ago Germany was unarmed and helpless ; that we had in front of us Mein Kampf, with the whole of Hitler's programme set out in detail ; that we have watched him carry it out deliberately and systematically point by point, and made no attempt to stop him anywhere." Yes, to think of it ; reflection on missed opportunities is often bitter. Last of all I may quote, in case by any chance M. Daladier's eye should fall on these lines, what Dr. Benes has more than once said to me in talks I have had with him in recent years : " I will never promise more than I can perform. I will never put my name to a treaty that I have not the power to carry out."
* * * * Whatever issue the present crisis finds it will, I trust, drive people's slow-moving minds in the direction of some form of public control of the constituents of munitions. Sir Thomas Holland, Principal of Edinburgh University, called attention to the possibilities of that in a lecture eight years ago at the Society of Arts, and later in his book The Mineral Sanction. Professor C. K. Leith, of Wisconsin, broadcasting here last March, showed that war-power, so far as it depends on minerals, as it almost wholly does, is in the hands predominantly of the British Commonwealth and the United States. Take nickel. At a time when German armaments have become a menace to all Europe it is not entirely exhilarating to reflect how largely they depend on nickel from Canada. Roughly nine-tenths of the nickel in the world comes from Canada, and virtually all the remaining tenth from New Caledonia, where a Franco- British condominium exists. Practically all the Canadian nickel is controlled by the International Nickel Company of Canada, whose capital, I observe, was valued in 1936 at about $88,000,000—say £17,600,000. Suppose the Canadian Government decided to take over the company's under- takings, through a loan which the British Government would be delighted to back, and allowed export only under licence on such conditions as might seem salutary—would the world as a whole be better off, or worse ?
* * * * When decisions involving a reading of national psychology have to be taken by Ministers or officials they are remarkably often taken wrong. That seems to me to be the case with regard to the " indefinite " postponement of the report of Sir John Anderson's Committee on the evacuation of London and other great cities in time of war, if, as I am told, the reason for the postponement is the fear lest its findings and recom- mendations should alarm the public. From what I have heard of the contents of the report this solicitude is quite superfluous. The report was meant to deal with getting people out of range of air-raids, and it does discuss getting people out of range of air-raids. There is nothing very terrifying about that—nothing, certainly, comparable with the content of Professor Haldane's recent book on A.R.P., and I doubt if anyone who has read Professor Haldane will fail to conclude that the more air-raid precautions are dis- cussed and the sooner something is done about them the better for everyone concerned. Evacuation in particular needs discussing, for parents have got to be educated (if they need educating) into the idea of sending their children into safe areas under a general scheme, whether it is possible for them themselves to leave their homes or not. Let us, then, have the Anderson report forthwith.
* * * * Journalists writing anonymously—as most of the great figures in English journalism in past generations did—lose too much of the honour they often merit. I have particularly in mind the special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph at Prague, whose despatches throughout the crisis have been of a singularly high order. One, in particular, deicribing on September r4th, on the basis of personal investigation, the complete failure of the Sudetendeutsch rising on the previous day, and the complete control of the situation established by the Czech authorities, might have been of international importance if decisions taken west of the Rhine had not made the internal state of Czechoslovakia irrelevant. It is fair to add that so far as the crisis is concerned the quality of the leading articles in the Telegraph has been as out- standing as that of its news columns.
* * * * I have received from more than one quarter a copy of a document entitled " British Rexist Party Manifesto " which bears no trace of its origin except the name of its publisher, which is simply " Townsman," 4o Great Russell Street, W.C., and its printer. It appears to be a laborious skit on various party manifestoes, and its only interest consists in the fact that in a list of obviously and blatantly fictitious members of the " Executive Council " appears the name of " The Rt. Hon. Lord Gifford," who is by no means a fictitious person. Que diable fait-il claws cette galere ?—And who put him there ? Or is he the author of the brochure ?
I can hardly believe it. * * * * Heard in Germany (of all places) : " In a country of Europe called Mittel The natives are all taught to Hittle And those who do not are immediately shot.
Even strangers must Hittle a little." * * * * They are saying in the City : " We have double-crossed the czechs, for our greater security."
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The Week's Greatest Truth " The general character of the terms submitted to the Czechoslovak Government for their consideration cannot in the nature of things be expected to make a strong prima facie appeal to them."—The Times. JANtis.
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