It is interesting to observe the curious companionships which this
war has created. A thin yellow line of pacifism runs from the extreme right to the extreme left. You have the rich defeatists who foresee that whatever happens they will lose many of their privileges and much of their money. You have the British Union of Fascists who assure us that this is a Jewish war and that we should make friends at once with Germany. You have the honest pro-Nazi who still believes that by a little tact on our part and the surrender of other people's liberties we could achieve appeasement. You have the perplexed intellectual who cannot reconcile him- self to the anomaly that in order to destroy violence we must use it. You have a central group of Christian pacifists and conscientious objectors who deserve our respect and for- bearance. There are the adherents of the Council of Action who, while agreeing with Mr. Lloyd George that there should be no surrender, also agree with him that there ought to be a Conference. You have a left-wing group which feels that it would be impious to resist a country which has entered into terms of such close amity with Holy Russia. And you have an amorphous and variable body of opinion which, while bored by the war, and while opposed to any dishonour- able capitulation, would welcome with thankfulness some settlement which would lead them, if only for a year or two, out of this twilight of uncertainty and apprehension.
Previous page
