PREVENT NEXT WAR

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 306, 28 December 1939, Page 6

PREVENT NEXT WAR

BRITAIN'S PROBLEM.

TO CURE GERMAN PSYCHOSIS.

ANCIENT TRUST IN CONFLICT.

Another letter by Nevil Shute, English author, to the American publisher, Thayer Hobson, of William Morrow and. Co., follows:— SOMEWHERE IN ENGLAND. My Dear Thayer,— In a previous letter I have told you what we think would happen if we lost the war, and now, presuming we win it—what are we going to do with a beaten Germany this time? We weren't so clever last time, though we did our best. The Treaty of Versailles was a muddled mixture of idealism, self-protec-tion and self-interest. In 1910 it was probably the best we could do. This time we've got to do much better unles/ we want another German war in 1960. There's a good deal of hard thinking going on in England about the next peace treaty. You hear people talking about it in bars over a pint of beer, and in the mess. And out of all the talk upon this subject that I have heard, one fact seems fairly well agreed. It's going to be far easier to manoeuvre a generous, lasting peace treaty after a short war than after a long one. That is because a long war makes the victors bitter. So much suffering cannot be forgiven and forgotten over night; a country that has suffered greatly in a wanton unnecessary war does not sit down to the peace conference in a mood of tolerant forbearance. This war has only been going for two months but already our mood is changing. Two mouths ago we would have taken the hand of the German people gladly, if only they could have rid themselves of Hitler. We would have worked with them to get things light again in Europe, to make things easier for them. Now we're not quite so sure. The war psychosis is getting us, as it was bound to do. We are beginning to feel that there's a streak of badness inherent in the German people, that every German is a bad German. Our Government has published a White Paper dealing with atrocities in German concentration camps. Our mood is growing bitter, and that means we're heading straight toward another Treaty of Versailles. Root of German Wars. But tolerant or bitter, we shall have to face the facts. When we havo won this war the German people will bo there, ruined and disillusioned as they

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i were before, waiting for other people to >• I decide their fate. Unless we want another German war within a few years' time we'll have to put in hand & constructive policy to prevent it. And what's that going to beT Over here we're not thinking much about the territorial changes of the next peace—they'll come later. What wo are puzzling over is the psychology of Germany, which, after all, is at the root of all these German wars. The Germans all through history have been a naturally warlike .people, seeking to letter their condition by victory in war. In medieval times they may have done so; to-day the whole idea is an anachronism. The victor in a large-scale modern war can't possibly be better off, in any way, than 'before war began. The German." think he can. The Basic Fallacy, That i« the basic fallacy that lies behind these wars. If, somehow, we can eliminate that idea from Germany the rest of the peace may be comparatively easy; compared with that the territorial changes are mere matters of detail. It make« very little difference to the lot of the peasant in eastern Europe if he is called a German or a Czech or a Pole, or even a Russian. He is the same man, and the people round him are the same. One Government will treat him - much the same as another, and if the change of nationality means that he will never have to leave his farm to go to war again—why, then, he'll take the change of nationality and like it. Unless, of course, he is a German and likes a war because he thinks it does him good. In the peace that is coming to us, this dreadful, responsible peace, so much more difficult than war, how caft we deal with the Germans to get this idea out of their heads T If we have the power, and the courage, and the money, we can establish a control in Germany for years after this war. I think we must do this because we njust control their educational system, for a time at any rate. For eight or nine years now German children have been taught distorted fact#, designed to stimulate in them their readiness for war—this war. We've got to put a stop to that if ever we are to obtain a lasting peace.

Educating the Children. Suppose we do that. Suppose we are able to take over the gigantic task of seeing that every German child gets an education that will make him a fit citizen of Europe. Suppose we should succeed in educating every German child to a belief in the futility of war. We shall have gone a long way to seeming peace in the far distant future, but we shall not be noticeably nearer peace in our own time. The young adult Germans will remain untouched. For roughly nine years, from 1930 to 1939, the Nazi party has been teaching all young Germans that war is an end in itself, a great and glorious thing. If we say that a young man who was 22 in 1930 was too old to be much affected by the teaching and a child who was 12 years old in 1939 too young to have assimilated it, we are left with the conclusion that the Nazi doctrines have affected the ideas of all Germans born between the years of 1908 and 1927. You see the dreadful magnitude of the task? All Germans over 12 years and under 31 think war is a good thing, that will benefit their country if they are victorious. There are probably 20,000,000 df them. They are young and virile, capable of making trouble for us for 30 years to come. They have been educated to a basically wrong idea, and a great number of them have passed the age when educational ideas can be reversed. They will continue to think war a great and glorious thing until they die.

Way Not Clear. I doubt if anyone in England or in France yet sees a way of dealing with those 20,000,000 Germans in such a way that they will be content to settle down to peace. But that is the problem that now must be solved if these repeated wars are to be stopped. This is a world problem, this quev tion of how to rid the Germans of their war psychosis. It's a technical problem, to be solved by psychological technicians. On it depends the prosperity of the world, for without the solution to problem there can be no generous, lasting settlement after this war. It's a problem that must be approached with the sane impartiality of a doctor. It's a technical problem, in fact, which can be studied better 011 your side of the Atlantic than, on ours. If your country wants to make a contribution toward peace, Thayer, she can put her wits to work on that one vhile we get on with the war. You do great things in other branches of technology. What about having a crack at this one? STEVIL SHUTE.