Studies in Hate-Politics
Shall Our Children Live or Die ? A Reply to Vansittart the German Problem. By Victor Gollancz. (Gollancz.
M. GOI1ANCZ'S book is ostensibly directed against that of Germany which is associated with the name of Lord Vansi —that the German people are by nature predatory and belli and that the only thing to do with them is to "hold down" for a generation or until they have reformed. stronger our feeling against this view the stronger must be objection to Mr. Gollancz's book, since the alternative sp which it manifests is in essence equally emotional, and even uncompromising ; it makes Lord Vansittart's bitterness almost angelic in comparison. About " Vansittartism " one ma agree that "it is in the emotional mood which is induced by selection of facts and 'interpretation of events that its great. peril lies." Yes, but to counter it by substituting anoth emotional and vengeful mood is using Satan to drive out Si. Mr. Gollancz, it may be agreed, has stated some truths should not be forgotten—that Hitlerism and the war are come quences of social and economic causes deep-seated in the mod world ; that Hitler after 1933 was, in some measure at least, "b up," even in democratic countries, by interests that dread Bolshevism • that German energy and power of organisation a be needed after the war in the service of international planning and that it would be inviting future trouble to bolster up r actionary, anti-revolutionary forces in post-war Germany. B Mr. Gollancz is not content to ask for international planning the solution. He explicitly asks as to foment the social revolu in Germany, and implicitly asks for the class-war everywhere.
Probably he would not admit this, but this is what sprin from his argument, just as vengeance and hate are encouraged b. Lord Vansittart's. He repeats ad nauseam the outworn phras which for so long have been used by agitators to create prejuch —" monopoly capitalism," the "profit-making motive," "el ploitation by Anglo-American capitalism," &c.—phrases W half-truths convey falsity and have become slogans to aro anger. Planning and the substitution of something better for th profit-making motive are what all reasonable people want, there will be no effective planning in an atmosphere poison by the jargon of class-war propaganda. Mr. Gollancz defea his own ostensible purpose—that of refuting " Vansittartism" by violent digressions in the sphere of hate-politics. This fo of politics is not improved when it is preached under the banal' of "Love your neighbour." Love is not aptly expressed through Mr. Gollancz's vocabulary. R. A. SCOTT-JAMES.
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