PRELUDE TO WAR

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22883, 2 December 1939, Page 16

PRELUDE TO WAR

—^ MR DUFF COOPER’S VIEW The Second World War: First Phas*. By Doff Cooper. Jonathan Cape. 346 pp. (10/6 net.) Through Simpson and Williams Ltd. Mr Duff Cooper has this book all the articles he wrote and the more imp'ortant speeches and addresses he delivered in year that followed his resignation from Mr Chamberlain’s Ministry., He has altered nothing and omitted nothing: he has . aimed, rightly.,to produce “an accurate picture of.iyhat had taken place in the mind ofoce individual.” This plan could- .nothave been followed without ..some - repetition of fact and argument; the reader will not think it excessive. ; Mr Cooper’s view was that Great Britain was “at war with the most formidable adversary” in tory, long before events marched to the declaration of war; that Munich

represented “a defeat in that war t only to be retrieved by a vast development of the - British fighting forces; that the development -rej quired "the compulsory principle, beginning with a national register and ending with conscription: ■ tig* the friendship of Russia should. W pursued, as also the supports oi smaller Powers; and that party deferences should be sunk and "a truty National Government on a broader basis” be formed. He believed tM*. the one way to prevent “the blood*, less struggle from deteriorating SnM a bloody one” was to show me “Powers of aggression” that Ine? could not win: he may have been right, but it is not easy to tcll.hOw men like Hitler are to be ration.* ally convinced, against their Winand their wish, or how, even thCJU conviction is to curb them. On M* Cooper’s own interpretation it was Mr Chamberlain’s error to misw»v Hitler, at Munich, for “a reasonable man like himself,” with Indited aims, and capable of submitting his policy to rational tests and con* trol. Mr Cooper’s calculations mign* as well have been deceived as Chamberlain’s. However, such » the point of view from which, jus*, before the declaration of war, -Mr Cooper looked back over “a tragic year of successful aggression unforeseen. of decisions -too long >( pof* - poned, of chances unused. book is to-day interesting rat “*? than valuable. It does him mucn credit as a thoughtful man and a » earnest patriot. , Readers of “The Press,” who remember some of these articles » they appeared here, will not p® sorry to turn to them again.