[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—In your issue of
March 22nd Mr. Sidney Spencer criticizes the Archbishop of Canterbury for his approval of our part in the great armament race. The Primate is, of course, above criticism, and we inferior Clergy have to feel the force of the resentment of those upon whom this war-threat presses most unkindly. As far as the Ecclesiastical Statesmen who rule the Church under the name of Bishops are concerned there has never been any disguise about their attitude towards war. Even the Archbishop has recently made the confusion of Pacifism more confounded by declaring that " we must conse- crate material force ! "
The pious complaCency of the higher Clergy on the question of War raises a barrier between Church and people which the aloofness of the former from the depth of feeling which runs underground permits them to overlook. As a Pacifist during the War I realize more than ever today that an absolutist attitude in this respect is the only possible one. I know it does not save one from the contempt of the leaders of the Church, but it may save a little Christianity from the contempt of the future. There is no other attitude possible for a Minister of the Gospel. The time has gone when one makes an effort to defend this attitude : it is probably incapable of any de- fence that finds arguments within the existing firmament of thought. We may even have to learn a new language to interpret the certitudes that press it upon us, like infants learning to speak : it is, however, quite plain that anyone, particularly a Clergyman, who wishes to reach the inarticulate distresses of the human heart today, must keep himself virgo intada with regard to any of the unctuous platitudes that blind the " single " eye on the question of the necessity of absolutism in the Pacifist attitude.—Yours, &c.,
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