SIR,—Is it still necessary to convince Mr. Wolseley D. Maundrell,
and others who may think like him, that the " distinction drawn at the beginning of the war between the German people and its leaders " is a mere product of his imagination and a bad form of wishful thinking? Those who cherish that thought should find facts to support it, and not take refuge in ignoring the events of today. Can youths who bomb hospitals, machine-gun helpless children, and crush refugees under tanks be defeated by Christian teaching alone? We have all made the mistake of judging the Germans by our standards and ideals, and now we find ourselves against a material menace with no ideals except expressed brutality, and standards lower than those of the savage. Against this, I submit, pious quotations are waste of time.
It has been said that we have placed our liberties in pawn for the duration. Many idealists will need to become realists by following the same course with their ideals. When we have won the war on the physical battlefield there will remain a huge task of converting the German people back to decency by Christian teaching. That time is not yet, and will never come, if the realist does not speak louder than the idealist until victory is won. Far be it from me to decry ideals when other things are equal. The crisis has been brought to our doors by our ignoring
the fact that ideals will crash if we have not the material, as well as the spiritual, application of force to support them. It is a warning and a lesson for visionaries for all time.—I am, yours
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