BRITISH WAR AIMS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 127, 22 February 1941, Page 15

BRITISH WAR AIMS

Plea By Distinguished Philosopher “What is at Stake and Why Not Say So?” by C. E. M. .load (London: < lollanc-z >.

Mr. .load, distinguished English philosopher, urges the great importance of publishing war aims which will emhodv the British liberal ideal, rather than that of imperialism, lin’d of circulating them so tliat tlie hope of the world will be seen in British victory. He is anxious also that these aims, besides including the triumph of the liberal tradition, should contain ,nn offer to Germany of federation similar to that made to France in June. "If out of the ashes of this war,” lie says, "there arises the phoenix of a European federation, then Hitler will not have lived and hated in vain.”

His purpose is to show that the enlargement of tlie bounds of tlie political units lin’d the subordination of the national State to it federal authority have become indispensable conditions of tlie continuance of the liberal tradition. And this liberalis.tn must be a thing of vigour and afforded a great deal more than lip-service. “It is a revolutionary faith that it must be presented to the modern generation, not as a spiritual bathchair in which a deca'dent age wheels about a sick conscience."

As always, Mr. Joad reasons clearly, and he presents his case most capably. It is not always easy to see how his proposals are to be carried out in practice, but this does not make his ideas less stimulating. Their value is in tlie inspiration they offer in the fight against fanaticism.