POST-WAR RECONSTRUCTION

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LXI, Issue 17, 1 March 1940, Page 3

POST-WAR RECONSTRUCTION

The current concentration of thought on war aims is altogether salutary, but it may be questioned whether the discussion begins far enough back, writes Mr J. R. Bellerby in the Spectator. We do not know yet what the war will be; It is a war against Germany to-day; it may be a war against Russia before we finish. Or alternatively it may be a war against a Russianised, that is to say Communised Germeny. There is plenty of common ground between Russia and Germany already. Both stand for a classless State, national economic control and the absolute, supremacy of the State. It is conceivable yet that the Allies will see Communism dominant from Vladivostock to the Rhine. What have we to oppose to it, whether we wait till that happens or succeed in making an lionourable peace with Germany first? There must be a conflict between systems, and the survival of the British (or the Anglo-French) will depend on the comparison it makes with the Communist. That points' to an inescapable conclusion. If we believe, as we passionately do, that the British system is worth developing, the home situation ought to be getting as much o four attention as the foreign, if not more. The British system can be strengthened to stand the test through the

development within it of the essentially Christian qualities, generosity, fellowship, mutual responsibility.