TOLERANCE
Sta,—I 'wonder whether the discussions so far going on separately under the headings of " The Eleventh Hour " and " Sleep No More " might not in some respects be combined under some such caption as " Toler- ance." For it seems to me that both your correspondents Mr. Reginald Swaby and Sir Noel Arkell are seeking to ascertain the exact limits of freedom of publication.
Those of us—however young and uninitiated we may be—who realise the precarious nature of intellectual liberty and its constant trend to destroy itself are bound to be perturbed by the irresponsibility of Pro- fessor Laski when he advocates measures of violence. For he is trading, on our tolerance only to preach intolerance. He is seeking to set aside all our machinery which resolves conflict by peaceful means in order to find a solution quite outside the constitutional framework. In fact he makes use of intellectual liberty merely to advocate its abolition. I hope this statement is not unjust.
Your comment on Sir Noel Arkell's letter concerning the " Sleep No. More " of " W. R. H." is a welcome sign of liberality and is in the best tradition of The Spectator. No nation possesses a greater good than the moral susceptibility of its members. Were we to prohibit the statement of genuine and considered views, we should kill that power of discrimina- tion which is, a free man's- proudest boast and engender that callousness and moral cynicism which is the distinguishing mark of the Fascist
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