A CRUSADE FOR YOUTH Sta,—In your issue of June 27th
" A Headmaster " has expressed what is in the minds of many who wistfully and a little anxiously observe the genesis of a new youth movement in this country. In his article "A Public School in War-Time" a careful diagnosis of troublesome symptoms in that domain has led him to explore beyond the limits of the case and suggest treatment having a wider application. He is concerned with the tragic narrowness and yet impressive intensity of the Hitler Youth Movement and its reactions in this country, particularly in the organising of youth into some form of patriotic service. Presumably the amazing and ominous phenomenon of the German Youth Movement has suggested our Youth Service Movement with its greater zeal in a better cause. But are we going the right way about it? I have just received a communication from an educa-
tion-committee headed " Youth Service " requesting certain particu- lars about local youth-activities with a view to compiling a volume of 'information concerning youth-facilities in the district. This is good as far as it goes, and the additional offer of the services of a youth- organiser is helpful, but how far is it likely to take us? " A Head- master " points out that the power of the Hitler Youth Movement is derived from faith in Hitler and belief in the destiny of Germany," and he wants to see English youth stirred by a passionate hero-worship rising to the height of religious allegiance. There he leaves the matter, bidding us farewell with a paradoxical passage from Pascal.
That is better than the dangerous simplifications of the problem achieved by ignoring the religious elements in the situation. But is the Board of Education the appropriate body to initiate such a national youth-movement? We might have expected the church to give the lead in this matter; but so far it has failed to do so. However, as a rule such movements do not spring from well-intentioned com- mittees, whether municipal or ecclesiastical, motived by the convic- tion that " something must be done about it." One of the strange things in this strange world is that leaders often arise suddenly and in unexpected places, and Hitlerism is a fearsome warning that they are sometimes focal points of the spirit of the nations they dominate. This makes the moral and religious state of our country a fundamental factor in the situation which we ignore at our peril. By all means let our Youth Service Movement get on with its good work, but let us not delude ourselves with the hope that it will send British youth crusading with a creed and a cry, a belief and a banner, to fill us with assurance for the future. It may, of course, by organising skill and good publicity fashion a youth-movement, a conglomerate of various societies functioning as social centres and physical-training groups, but the heroic may remain untouched, and the instinct for worship whether of man or God, may atrophy or, worse still, express itself in morbid and debased forms. Like " A Headmaster," I conclude with some words from Pascal: Jesus-Christ est robjet de tout, a le centre oft tout tend. Qui le connait connait la raison de routes choses.
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