NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 44, 20 August 1940, Page 8

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

CHANGE IN BRITAIN

NEW REVOLUTION? EFFECT OF THE WAR With our eyes turned on the military results of the policy which is now being followed by Britain we are inclined to overlook the fact that this policy is vitally different from anything in the past. It has given a new direction to British economic life, but it has also meant social and .political changes, and it may mean a new revolution in the life of the country. Mr. Morrison's Speech. In a speech a day or two ago Mr. Herbert Morrison, Minister of Supply* mentioned that the country must not get into the way of thinking that "all forms of war organisation are merely temporary or merely necessary evils. Many represent real advances. " W« want to see inequalities toned down, or removed, unfair privileges abolished, the threat of unavoidable hardship taken away and opportunities given to all for a fuller, freer, and more creative existence."

In general it may be said that the attitude of the Labour Party in supporting the Government is that the old Britain must not return. Mr. | Harold Laski, writing on this point in | the New York "Nation" recently, pointed out that Labour held "three key points" in the Cabinet and would not be content to let things go back to pre-war way's when the conflict was over. Remarkable Editorial. This viewpoint was recently set forth, also, by "The Times," which remarked editorially that "we must beware of defining the values [for which Britain stands] in purely nineteenth century terms. If we speak of a democracy we do not mean a democracy which maintains the right' to vote and forgets the right to work and the right to live. /If we speak of equality we do not mean a political equality nullified by social and economic privileges. If we speak of freedom we do not mean a 'rugged individualism' which excludes social organisation and economic planning. If we speak of economic reconstruction we think less of maximum production (though this, too, will be required) than of equitable distribution. The change which has come to Britain has been produced by two things, the peril to the nation, wmcn was-rea-lised when the Battle of Flanders was raging, and the example of France. The cracking and fall of the French Republic under the pressure of war caused Britain to ask herself whether her existing organisation was able to stand the pressure of the forces without, and within, the country. It was for this" reason that, in a few minutes, the Commons gave back' freely and cheerfully the privileges which it had taken centuries of effort to win.

End of Laissez Faire. So today Britain appears to be in the midst of a new revolution. How this is viewed was set forth by The Times" when it declared that "the problem of the new European order is, after all, the problem of every political organisation: how to combine individual liberties with the authority necessary for social cohesion." The newspaper went on to dismiss "the archaic tendencies of laissez faire" as "as obsolete internationally as they are in domestic policy" and to say that "some measure of pooled resources and centralised control is- necessary for the survival of European civilisation." The pooling of resources and centralisation of control seem to be the key words to this new social revolution in, Britain. Today the Government regulates industry, labour, food production and distribution to a degree which was beyond imagination even a year ago. Pooling of stocks arid the central control of production and even of foreign trade have been carried a long way. Other Changes. But there are changes in Britain in other directions. The introduction of such a number of Labour members into the Cabinet, and the allocation of such important roles to them is something which did not exist in any previ. -ous war. Mr. Morrison and Mr. Bevin are recognised as the leaders of Britain after Mr. Churchill, while for the first time the head of the Admiralty in wartime is a Labour man. In a few weeks the Ministers of Supply and of Labour have demonstrated that they are able to organise for war. Socially Britain is being much affected by three things. The first of these is conscription, which is throwing the young men of the country, from all classes, together for the common defence of the realm. They are being thrown together not merely in th« Army but outside it, for the Minister of Labour has the power to conscript civil workers just as the Secretary for War can mobilise the age groups chosen for military service. A National Question. Another*, change is due to the fact that today the British nation realises that its defence is no longer a question for professional forces on land and sea, but must be won by the united effort of the entire people, and that modern total war has brought home to the worker that the factory front is quite as important as the fighting front. This realisation has been spread by the distribution of posters among workers in the various industrial plants. Also a potentially powerful influence is the evacuation plan. The ultimate significance of this drastic movement of population depends on the length of the war. But there has been a mingling of people from town and country, and each section has been given first-hand realisation of how th« rest of the population lives. Social problems which previously were some* thing unknown save as abstract affair* are now seen and studied at clos« range.

The Public Schools. Finally there is the factor, of education. The war has struck a severe blow at the English public school system; exclusive1 schools are finding it difficult to carry on and there has been a suggestion that they should be given State aid and turned into State schools, thus either severely modifying or abandoning their traditional role of educating the "ruling class." This possible change in the method which made a badge of the "old school tie", may be one of the most potent force* in making for a changed Brfltaiu.