BERNARD SHAW Says We Will Have Peace

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23429, 19 August 1939, Page 11 (Supplement)

BERNARD SHAW Says We Will Have Peace

Apart from anything else, everybody is too afraid to make war. In an interview with E. M. Salter—World Copyright.

IHAS war become more imminent now that all i Europe is armed to the teeth and .Britain so determined to safeguard Europe's present frontiers 'I No. The peace at present is maintained by funk; anything that intensifies funk makes for peace. The polite name for funk is common scuso. But rearmament safeguards peace. And it gives employment instead of the dole. A lasting peace is a dream. But any statesman wh'o is not desperately afraid ! of starting a cannonade should be sent, to a mental hospital. 2. —Do you think Danzig will provide the spark to set the European powder barrel on fire? • Danzig by itself is not worth a war to Germany of any other Power except Poland. All the Powers want to settle the Danzig question without a fight; therefore it will probably be peacefully settled —or left unsettled. But, of course, if Germany went mad enough to .xrant to fight, Danzig would he as good an excuse as another.

3.—ls Dr. Goebbels right when claiming that the present "encirclement" of Germany provides a simile to 1914? Yes. as far as the encirclement is concerned. But there is no secrecy about

the present situation. If that had been llio case in 1914 there would have been no war. 4. —What would be the most sensible thing for Herr Hitler to do now that

he is faced by the determined attitude of the democracies? Nothing. We are all so desperately frightened of a full-sized war that we are all wanting peace, including Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini. Mr. Chamberlain did the right thing at Munich. The alternative was to bomb Berlin and have London bombarded next day. We have never given in to the dictators. -We made a wicked treaty in 1918 and covered Central Europe with military frontiers instead of geographical ones. Thereby we put ourselves in the wrong and mutilated Germany in the right. That is what has beaten us. 5. —Can propaganda, such as is broadcast in German by the 8.8.C. to-day, help to overcome the conflicts that threaten to incite war? I don't know. It all depends on the propaganda. If it is sufficiently emollient it may do good. If, as is quite possible, it is self-righteous and irritant, it may make matters worse. 6. —Herr Hitler places immense value on the weapon of propaganda both at home and in the enemy camp? Do you agree? Propaganda is a necessary moans of achieving any political purpose that is fit for publication. But Herr Hitler is terribly handicapped by his anti-

Semitism, which is a crazy fad and not a political system. The Jews will be his ruin in the long; run, even if they perish with him—especially if enough of them perish with him. 7.—Talking of home affairs, we now havo a now woman Minister. Do you think that female emancipation has reached its goal? No. Until every public authority contains a representative proportion of women, no matter how elected or coopted or nominated, the political emancipation of women will be incomplete. Votes for women are useless, as women will not vote for women. They don't want to be emancipated. * B.—And what about money? Do you think it is overrated in our days? No. The great majority underrate it, and are poor in consequence. The antique Grecian precept is still sound: First'acquire an independent income, and then practise virtue. 9. —People say you have made millions with your plays. People know nothing about it. There are no millions in work of the quality of mine. I have no time to bother about money.