The Hutt News Wednesday, August 22, 1945. VICTORY — AND AFTER

Hutt News, Volume 19, Issue 12, 22 August 1945, Page 5

The Hutt News Wednesday, August 22, 1945. VICTORY — AND AFTER

YJ Day lias come find gone. As the natural ebullience of victory subsides it is being replaced * in the minds of many by soulsearching thought as to just what the future holds for us all. On the one hand there are those who see in such things as the atomic bomb, a portent of speedy destruction for civilization if not of jjiLmankind itself. On the other there are those who imagine that the dawn of peace will im- * mediately usher in a brave new "world in which mankind will forevermore bask in the warm suns t of perpetual Peace and Plenty. * The one school of thought is probably as far from the truth as ( the other. During the 1914/18 war, similar prophesies of a brave new world .were also heard. We know how true they proved. We also know that human nature has changed little since then. It was during- the first World ■ iWar, and in answer to those who were predicting' a better-than-ever world as a result of that conflict, that Gr. K. Chesterton l-drew an allegorical nicture that could well apply to-day. Chesterton likened the Germany of that day to a violent burglar who had broken into the house of a citizen — Britain and her Allies. * The burglar was resisted with equal violence by the man of the t house and a long- struggle ensued. The struggle ranged from room to room (or country to country) and heavy material damage was done. "How foolish this citizen would have been" said Chesterton if,' in the middle of his desperate amid the ruins of his possessions, he had claimed that all-he had to do was to overcome the burglar and automatically he would have a better-than-ever house." Yet there are people to-day who ,« do think along those lines. They are wrong. The victory we have so recently achieved is not a magic wand that will automatically transform the world into a wonderland. It merely means that, at great cost, we have defeated the international burglars and won for ourselves the privilege of making good the widespread damage suffered in the* process. Before this world can be a better world we must first concentrate on making it as good as it was before the conflict, b and that is no small job.