THE COLLAPSE OF FRANCE
Snt,—A perusal during the week-end of many newspaper articles on the collapse of France makes it apparent that what I believe to be the real reason for that tragic disaster is, as yet, very imperfectly under- stood. France collapsed, I believe, because too many French people failed to put first things first, or, to phrase it differently, had a wrong order of values. It was not only the Communists and the Fascists, the politicians and the generals, and the lovers of property who failed in this way—equally guilty were the lovers of beautiful things, and the people who could not bear to see women and children hurt.
If we are not to fail in the same way in our hour of trial, it is essential that each one of us, man and woman, should decide now that nothing—no loss, no suffering of our children and our loved ones, nor anything else—will deter us from fighting on until the Germans have been defeated. Only when that question has been squarely faced by every citizen, and answered rightly, can we be quite sure that we are adequately guarded against the fate of France, and really armed in
every way for victory.—Yours faithfully, R. A. C. RADCLIFFE.
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