NORMAN ANGELL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21580, 26 August 1933, Page 9 (Supplement)

NORMAN ANGELL

" THE GREAT ILLUSION, 1933 " Few writers have been more misunderstood and misrepresented than Sir Norman Angell. It is still a commonplace that he was the man who said that war had becomo an imposibility. The fact that he had thought war not only possible, but extremely likely, seems to matter little with some people. What Sir Norman Angell did say was that in the modern industrialised world war was futile. "The Great Illusion " around which controversy raged for six years prior to the outbreak of the Great War haa been out of print and is unknown to a new generation of readers. Accordingly a fresh edition is welcome. " The Great Illusion, 1933," consists of three parts—a statement showing the relevance of the thosis to the present crisis; a rearranged version of " The Great Illusion"; and some notes on the general post-war vindication of dts thesis. The author wages his campaign against war not on moral but on economic grounds. He rejects the premise that the victorious party in the struggle for military predominance gains some material advantage over the party that is conquered. As far back as 1808 he was explaining the impossibility of extracting a large war indemnity from a conquered nation. The keynote to all Sir Norman's writings is international co-operation. " Our prosperity," he writes, " is dependent upon that of our neighbours, our economic stability can only be secured by international co-operation which must be based upon equality of right and which continued competition for preponderance of power must make impossible." Sir Norman Angell's views are further elaborated in " From Chaos to Control." In this volume lie discusses the psychology of the public's attitude toward reform. The problem confronting the leaders of the world to-day is not merely to find a way of escape, but to find a means of enabling the millions to see that it is the way of escape. If "the multitudes cannot distinguish in the policies presented to them between folly and wisdom, science and quackery, the efficient democratic control of our increasingly complicated economic apparatus becomes impossible." Tho author believes that our present difficulties are largely due to the failure of organised education to prepare those in its charge to understand the new kind of society which the last half century or so has brought into being; further, that this failure is an avoidable failure. Both these books of Sir Norman Angell provide plenty of food for thought. "The Great Illusion, 1933," by Norman Angell. (Heinemann). " From Chaos to Control, by Norman Angell. (Allen and TTnwin).