AFTER THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 81, 3 October 1944, Page 7

AFTER THE WAR

BRITAIN'S PROBLEMS

SOME REFLECTIONS

(By James Lansdale Hodson.) LONDON, September 26

I have no doubt that, our British troops will make their . own ironic comments on the fact that with the war in Europe so comparatively at an end/ the Government should have decided to raise their pay. They will be pleased all the same. We Mfantrymen used to say in the last war that if it went on "long enough we shpuld be :fighting it really well.. We've certainly made a lot of progress *in this war and not only technically. There has been some broadening of. minds among the powers that be. I'm thinking of the Army Bureau of Current Affairs and Army Education which, between them, have given a lot of our soldiers a, course in adult education. Just before .1- left Italy I spent an hour or two at G.H.Q. talking to the man in .charge of those things in that theatre of war. The Army Education began . originally—it was long years ago—in order, to make soldiers better

able to -imbibe,.: their military and .•>. technical training; in short, to make them, better soldiers. But the same Department is now bent on an ambitious scheme for turning them back ."into civilians and enabling them by, training, during the post-armistice period, 4;o be better citizens and better equipped to earn their livelihood. GIGANTIC SCHEME FOR ADULT EDUCATION. . This scheme is probably going to be the biggest in the shape of adult education the world has known. In Italy alone the Army wants 60,000 reference books —that's 400 volumes for each unit. In addition they want ;300,000 ■ textbooks on a tremendous of subjects,-from carpentry to jiaw, and from farming to banking. 'Hhe CO. estimates that he will resquire 10,000 instructors. Both the mobilisation plan just arijnounced and this education plan sound ;a marked advance on our methods in :1918. . We're getting on. In passing :it is' maybe worth noting that 38 A.B.C.A. groups which function at ■ iG.H.Q. have been debating" changes •rtJiat they would like to see in the .Army newspaper. They think it a good ipaper but the majority would * take ' (out photographs and headlines beicause the first are too poor and the .•second a waste of space. They dislike articles beginning on one page and (ending7 on another and .they want imore news of Parliament and.more ' ;space for letters to the editor. They jare -against any man writing a daily (column and argue that he cannot keep :it up.. What they appreciate highly is ia paper giving both sides to the question.) ' ' A young Radical.'friend said yester<day, "We've shown in this war that ißritain doesn't always muddle through ,-and we've shown that we can organise isuperbly—look at these invasions of the Continent which have gone like (Clockwork, and look?at the harbours :we've built on the beaches. There, no. excuse any more for unempliajH ■ment and slums and underfeeding .Using even half the'vision anjjl iCjierjgn:and invention and ,; pullmgo .^Jgemer ithat we've done m is rthere we cannot do? n^Wje'v^iiYirtually (exploded all arguments ihof-jpthe old :fogies and better-iiotter^oj; who said tfhat we cantt affotfd this-and musn't

(do that."7oi .--i9vh> er f p. , ) :^s^o^ $• 'YOUTH. "^SRia^§^tlieO^6lce of idealistic youth. Ijtf .going:itfetbfe ;strong in Britain. Men \\^o' ha9e>'S.been risking their lives wM^^KiieJ nation has been spending :Hf|teen?%nillionsi-.a day aren't going to ]B?odIc -old gentlemen saying that we icannot afford td build, the right sorts .of houses in the, right ■ numbers.: You tcould,//were you, so minded, set down ,-a few-credit items on a balance-sheet <of even;a war as; horrible as tliis, and ian". awakening of, the minds of many tfolk andr some hardening of the vigorous idealism of -Jhe: young people is ibne 6i those items.- - , We've given coal miners a miniahum of five pounds a week, we've lOijehetf^tip 'shipyards 'that- ha vet been1 (derelict, and we've made wastelands :fruitful and cultivated millions of ;acres that lay idle. Our evacuation <exposed hideous sores in the form of (Children under-nourished and ill Ibrougnt-up,' and I hope that we shall ibe sensible enough; to profit by the ex--sPOSure;-- > / ■. ...-,■ :. .. ■ - \ :• , Our heavy taxation and our rationing of "foods has willy-nilly achieved isome levellingrup of the nation. Fewer -.folk;have gone hungry and fewer have (gonr^edrJihemselves; the poor have been ; a triflfeibe|ter off and the rich a little Jless rich.[ There's -a long way to go yet in; both-cgirections. Our medical .•scientists liay^ vg^yen us penicillin and J've no.'doubt'-the "advances made dur:ing the last war in^plastic surgery— tthat beneficent skill;' which mends features which the waf 'ftSs devilishly jmutilated—have made fre'sir strides.- .

, All this is trifling when^eD^agairist jnaen wh6 are dead and wouhdeST/'childjren made fatherless and Wives widows; -when set against disease aiid, poverty .and suffering and hatred thsft , ;are over-running a very large part of' \the world. But perhaps we've made progress towards preventing war happen- . jing again, or, at all events, happening {anything like so soon as before. It's to think that some horse .•sense has been knocked into our thick jheads;: on the subject of collective Security; and the indivisibility of .peace (Pnethe need for countries which, reisp'ect law and order standing together $rr a 'wicked world. A TASK FOR THE WAKiS ... ■■.- ■...:,. .; .; survivors. .r : I suppose we of the Commohwealth now that had we gone down •in 1940 the world would have fallen £nto a new Dark Age. That seems a jpretty. good argument for the' Comimonwealth and for it growing stronger -rather than weaker. Recently I talked jin Naples with a New Zealand major, &{ man who said that he-had come to ithe Western Desert in 1941 as black ; jhaired as a raven, but who is now very grey round the ears. He said i'ihat-'New Zealand could do with eight more people. That was his own personal view. Others may think 'lithe figure should be halved; How jmany millions Australia wishes to Jiave or could absorb, or Canada or South, Africa, I'm ignorant of. But I Tbelieve a good many young men of Britain who have fought overseas m this war and rubbed shoulders with £ur Dominions' troops will be attracted by the Dominions' life. If any l^f my children wanted to go overseas '#fter the war and the Dominion concerned were willing to take them, I ' fhould say, "Go, and God bless you." One other thing I hope the war has % . ttaught us—that we shall be wise ' to jraise, so far as we can, not only our f>\vn standard of living but that of pther nations also. Needy among the jnations like the poor among individuals aren't going to remain unjmindful or not jealous of those fetter off. It's for us who survive the war to itry and profit by what' we've learnt, ithat our children or theirs in turn jnay not have to pay again this monstrous price. We may not succeed.al- • -[together but we can succeed in part anyhow.-; ■ -". '■'■ ■ ■ '■■ "