I can never reconcile myself to the idea that disasters
are less disastrous because they bring out fine qualities in human beings. Attempts to justify war on that principle leave me cold. But it is impossible not to be astonished and impressed at the response to the Lynmouth appeal. The financial aspect— L300,000 given so far—is striking enough, but much more so is the statement issued a few days ago that there were still 180,000 parcels of clothing still unopened and it would take weeks merely to discover their contents, much less allot them to beneficiaries. The further problem of disposing of super- fluity remains to be solved later. The Lynmouth disaster, no doubt, appealed in a special way to the imagination. Even so the demonstration of the innate generosity of the British people is impressive. By contrast the refusal of the British people to subscribe as much as £1,000 to a Bernard Shaw Memorial Fund is not uninstructive. I should not be prepared to argue that its instincts have misled it in either case. * * * *
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