THE EIGHT POINTS AND PUBLIC OPINION
Sut,—Mr. Harold Nicolson may be right in his judgement that the Roosevelt-Churchill Manifesto fell flat. I heard it with some friends, and all of us greeted the Eight-point Charter with enthusiasm. Later contacts confirmed Mr. Nicolson's view. One met with sullen sus- picion or stolid indifference in many quarters. Yet without the back- ing of an enthusiastic and sustained popular intelligence the chances of the Eight-point Charter as a practical programme are not too good. I have before me a letter written to me in Dundee, November, 1918, by Mr. Churchill. He foretells a European settlement which will assure peace for generations to come. The forces of popular foolish- ness and hate were too strong against any wise, statesmanlike peace in 1919. The Bottomley spirit conquered. The Eight-point Charter needs to become part of the mind of Britain reinforced by every possible means of intelligent propaganda.
One other conviction, with which you will not agree, I would desire to express. The spirit of the Eight-point Charter does not blend with the cry for victory and unconditional surrender. Victory tends to a dictated peace, which is the very opposite of the Eight-point Charter. I think this incompatibility caused the feeling of flatness. If you told Europe they could have peace any time on those terms, you would not need to rely on Hitler's word or his downfall. The terms themselves would prove his doom before very long.—Yours faithfully, RICHARD LEE.
Westgate, Stoke Park, Coventry.
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