POST-WAR DISILLUSIONMENT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 247, 31 July 1941, Page 4

POST-WAR DISILLUSIONMENT.

Afuch the greater part of America’s deep disillusionment about the last war and Versailles can bo traced direetlv to the reckless way in which British and American propaganda, in that other war, - created extravagant, impossible hopes in the minds of the plain people everywhere, writes Mr O. H. Taylor, of Harvard University, in discussing peace aims in the “Chiistian Science Monitor.” Disillusionment is the penalty of having cultivated illusions in the first place. To promise more than can lie achieved, or to make reckless promises before careful study of what can bo achieved and encourage the people to make their sacrifices with lighthearted enthusiasm in the expectation of quickly gaining Utopia—to do these things is to jVlay with men’s hearts and to court disaster, f believe thaUafter tliis war is won America and Britain can go on and build a hotter world. It will not he Utopia, and its outlines will not ho clearly visible to anyone until thousands of tlio best leaders have laboured in concert, hard and long, at the task of planning it. Constructive ponce aims can bo announced only at a future, more advanced, stage of the work now under way.