CAN THE LION AND THE LAMB — ? [To the
Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SLR,—The article by Mr. H. Powys Greenwood under the title " We Can No Other," contains an expression of his astonishing belief that " upon the co-operation of the British and German peoples the survival of Western civilisation fundamentally depends." Even if we explain the strange omission of any reference to the French people as implying that its co-operation is a matter of course, it is nevertheless difficult to understand . how Mr. Greenwood expects the co-operation of the British and German peoples for the survival of Western civilisation to be carried out. He knows full well that during the past five. years and a half the outstanding principles of Western civilisation, such as personal liberty, freedom of the Press, tolerance of religious and racial minorities, democratic parlia- mentary representation, and respect for international treaties, have been brutally suppressed in Germany and replaced by a system of totalitarian tyranny, the persecution and spoliation of minorities, State Secret Police, concentration camps, and contempt for international law. The head of the German Reich has been aptly described by you, in your leading article,
as " a man emancipated from all ordinary obligations of honour, decency or even sanity."
In such circumstances, how does Mr. Greenwood suggest that there can be any co-operation on the part of the German people for the survival of Western civilisation ? Even if he differentiates the German people, as perhaps he does, from the German Government, how does he think that the people will be able to shake off the demoralising yoke of the Nazi regime, with its perverse and fanatical ideology ? And since the German people has been prevented by a mass of reactionary laws, as well as by the State's ruthless interference with inter- national relations in the cultural sphere, from any effective co-operation for the survival of Western civilisation during the past five years and more, what prospect or possibility does Mr. Greenwood think there is of any better co-operation in the interests of Western civilisation as understood in Great Britain and France, and not as misconceived by Doctors Goebbels and Rosenberg, during the next five or even fifteen years ?—I am, Sir, yours, &c., ISRAEL. COHEN. Child's Hill, N.W.2.
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