WAR BOOKS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 109, 4 November 1939, Page 21

WAR BOOKS

A TAILPIECE

(By C.S.P.)

As. the originator of the series of articles on War Books, I believe I ani entitled to the last word. Like a baiv rister, I will adduce no additional evidence, and I will be brief.

"A.M.'s" remark that this is a war willed by one man is true enough; but the iriiplicati On holds water as a sieve holds it—the water runs out faster the more you look at it. For the one man who willed the war had to have a powerful section, of public opinion behind him, and another section, sub^ missive at the least, which would not oppose him. And this result could not have been attained except by the suppression of truth and the nationalistic I jingo tactics which were in fact adopted. The books of Erich Maria Remarque might and should have helped Germany to rebel against a repetition of 1914-1918; but they have been burnt, | and their author is in exile. The "one }mari,".at any rate, appreciates the lvalue of popular opinion. It is the instrument upon which he plays.

No, "A.M.,'' one man may will war* but nations wage it. Instead of debunking war, as Remarque would have had it, Hitler and Goebbels have glorified it. The result of the policy of decrying war was to be seen in the British reluctance to fight, a reluctance which lasted.until there was no honourable alternative. But the result of six years of rampant nationalist propaganda is to be seen along the border where Germany marches with France.

A second point—the last: my clearest recollection of "Journey's End"— what, in fact, made the most impression—is the comic" relief, the batman. As a first-class tragedy, which "A.M."' considers it, I thought the play failed —and would still have thought so (I am not really hungry for corpses) though the author had left as many bodies.lying about as there were in "Hamlet." But I'll never forget that batman!