BRITAIN'S “HISTORICAL MISSION"

Evening Star, Issue 23816, 21 February 1941, Page 8

BRITAIN'S “HISTORICAL MISSION"

There is no cause for any Englishman to have a feeling of superiority when lie contemplates the spectacle of halfthoughts and quarter-policies that is now being revealed in the United States. We may deride the American delusion that it is possible to take any effective steps at all if yon proclaim beforehand that they are to stop ‘‘ short of war ” ; but we had the same delusion in 1935. We may deplore the slowness with _ which the Americans realise that it is easier to fight while you still have strategically-placed allies than to fight alone; but we made the same mistake in 1938. Wo may smile at the earnest discussion of how war can be waged without lowering the standard of living; but we had the same crippling anxiety in 1939—and in 1940, too. The only solace we can draw from the spectacle is to discover that, after all the abuse that has been heaped by American writers on Great Britain for her blindness, her slowness, her effoteness, our brand of democracy is not discovered to be so much inferior to the American, when it comes to the acid test. We both share the .same weaknesses and the same strengths, indeed, it has become our historical mission to hold out in our fortress and give the Americans time to think things out. If we play our part, they will play theirs. —‘ Economist,’ London.