A SPECTATOR' S NOTEBOOK
NOW and then a book is published whose influence on contem- porary thought is immediate and manifest. That, I predict, will be true of the volume (not yet published here) in which two distin- guished Americans, Ex-President Hoover and Mr. Elugh Gibson, who spent thirty years in the American Diplomatic Service, set out their ideas on The Problems of Lasting Peace. The domestic importance of the book is that it signalises Mr. Hoover's complete and open breach with the isolationists in his own Republican Party— and, on such questions as economics, international relief and peace settlements, the Ex-President's is a voice which deservedly commands attention. With isolationism challenged by him as uncompromisingly as it has been by Mr. Wendell Willkie, the Grand Old Party finds itself in a strange state of discomfiture. But the Hoover-Gibson book has, of course, a far wider than domestic significance. Its import- ance, which may prove very great indeed, lies in the weight of autho- rity it throws behind the demand that America shall bear her full share of responsibility for implementing the peace settlement when the time comes. The question of the " restoration " of the League of Nations, with some revision of its Covenant, is fully discussed, and the authors come down decisively in favour of "general disarma- ment at once, within weeks—not months—after firing ceases," and of a peace procedure divided into three stages : immediate settlement of problems which will not brook delay, an indeterminate period for reconstruction and deliberation, and a third period of more or less indefinite duration for settlement of long-view problems.
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Repeated references were made in the Old Age Pensions debate in the House of Commons on Wednesday to the forthcoming report of Sir William Beveridge's committee on social security. The report is likely to be issued, I believe, in the middle of October, and it may well be a document that will affect the whole future of this country. Sir William has already stated publicly his conviction that it is possible to conquer want, and there is little doubt that his report will embody his views on how to do that. In an address on Thursday to the Engineering Industries Association he specified five giant evils which it was necessary to destroy—want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness. There is a programme there suffi- cient for a generation, or at any rate a decade. But it is well to make a beginning with want,
* * * * I feel some anxiety about the success of the United Aid to China Fund, to which Mr. Eden gave his blessing at the Mansion House on Wednesday, not because of any lack of ability on the part of the organisers or of goodwill on the public's part, but because so many other campaigns—for the Red Cross, for Russia, for air-raid victims, for Malta and other incontrovertibly deserving causes—have 'made heavy demands on pockets which Sir Kingsley Wood has already so largely denuded. But for the China Fund to be launched and to reach only an unimpressive total would be worse than for it never to have been launched at all. The fund, as Mr. Eden said, gives us an opportunity to demonstrate in a practical way our deep sympathy with the Chinese, now for the moment almost completely isolated from their allies. The opportunity must be seized, even at some sacrifice. Having nothing whatever to do with the fund myself, except as a minor subscriber, I urge all readers of this page to do what they can to make this pledge of friendship between two great peoples notable and effective. (Subscriptions to Lady Cripps, 13 Regent Street, S.W. r.) There seems to be a possibility that the ban on the Daily Worker may before long be lifted. At any rate, the Daily Worker, I believe, takes that view, though Mr. Morrison's public statements seem to provide small reason for such optimism. But, even so, the paper's troubles will not be over, for it will have to find some- one to print it, and preliminary searches seem to have yielded un- promising results. Many printers have been blitzed, which creates practical difficulties, particularly as it means that those who escaped are full up with work, and many who might at a pinch accommodate the paper are by no means anxious (out of common prudence rather than political prejudice) to be mixed up in any possible future complications. And future complications there may always be, for no one can quite see the Daily Worker dropping a red blouse to don a white sheet.
* * * * Some facts have reached the Religious Division of the Ministry of Information concerning texts chosen by Protestant and Roman Catholic preachers in Holland in recent months. Curiously enough, the Protestants seem to have turned exclusively to the Old Testa- ment and the Catholics exclusively to the New. Among the former's may be quoted: "That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten ; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten." (Joel I, 4.) " Though thou exalt, thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord." (Obadiah, 4.) To be so appropriately pointed must have taken some courage. Catholic preachers chose, inter alia: " But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Gal. vs. 4.) (Wearing of the cross has been forbidden in Holland, on the ground that the emblem is being used as an anti-Nazi symbol.) "But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another." (Matthew, x, 16.) It is just to claim that throughout Europe—particularly in Norway —the Churches of all denominations are centres of the firmest and most courageous opposition to Nazi doctrine and Nazi tyranny. * * * *
This comes on unimpeachable authority. A certain Home Guard detachment went recently to a locality in the London area for bombing practice. There were strict orders that nothing should be done till the area had been marked off with red flags, which were to be obtained at an office close by. They turned out to be un- available, and official correspondence which was set on foot elicited the fact that none could be secured without coupons—which no one possessed. Clearly a case for conference between Sir James Grigg and Mr. Dalton. Similar sidelights on officialism reach me simultaneously from another source. A Devonshire farmer's wife showed herself willing and accommodating in taking in evacuees at the billeting officer's request. In due course the farmer received a questionnaire followed shortly by an intimation from the local rating authority that the assessment of the house was being raised, as it was not being used solely as an agricultural dwelling-house. The consequence naturally is that the occupier refuses to look at evacuees now. This seems a good healthy wino: outrage. • Jews.
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