NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23969, 20 May 1941, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS

WHENEVER AND WHEREVER Nothing is more admirable in many of its aspects than the ordinary Briton's deep-rooted conviction that his country cannot lose the war. says the Sunday Times. The man in the street and the man on the farm, the man in the shop and the man in the factory—they are all at one in scouting the possibility of ultimate defeat. Jn this belief they have stood tip to harder knocks than any other civil population yet has. The other side of the medal is complacency. Since the war will be won anyhow, why get out of one's groove? Why not leave lighting and working to others? People who talk and act like that forget that we are caught in a totalitarian war. Whether by effort or sacrifice, or both, a contribution is due from each of us. 'Die cause of victory requires every individual to be forward, not backward, in helping—to do, not merely all hi 1 must, but all he can, "whenever and -wherever. THE PLAIN MAN AS KING Speaking to one of his guests in the drawing room of Buckingham Palace after the State banquet to President Wilson in 1918, recalls Mr. .1. A. Spender, King George V. expressed his admiration of the President's accomplishment in delivering an eloquent and word-perfect speech lasting half an hour on such an occasion without glancing at a note. How different from bis own speech—an excellent one, by the way —and the labour and trouble and consultation with Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary that had gone to it, and his anxiety up to the last moment lest he should falter or stumble or forget some part of it iti delivering it! Then he 'added. "1 am no orator, which is a good thing for this country. My cousin, the German Emperor, was a great orator. A constitutional king should not be an orator." The scene comes back to me after 22 years, and ,seems to supply a motto for Mr. John Gore's newly published "Personal Memoir" of the King. The theme of il is exactly that he was no orator, but a plain man reflecting in a high degree the virtues of his people and some of their defects.

PARALYSIS IN VICTORY Tlie disenchantment of victory is far more paralysing than the bitterness of defeat, writes Mr. L. 13. Natnier. The Western democracies —America, Great Britain and France —seemed to have had the world ,in their power; except that it is in the power of men to remake worlds. Had we had the inspiration, humility and sanity of true conservatism, had we had a firm, feasible purpose and the determination to carry it through, we might at least have-pre-served the obvious fruits of war and victory. Kar more was desired, infinitely less was achieved. In this war we are fully conscious of lighting for our very life as a civilised nation: the war has to he fought through to the hitter end -an end much more complete and decisive than MM8 —even if nothing more can he achieved by victory than hare survival. In the last war we had still visions of a world better than that which we had known —of some glorious expiation for all the sufferings and deaths; and in a naive way

we expected victory by itself to achieve our aims. The sacrifices made by I'Yanee were even greater, the disappointment even more poignant. More than anything this explains the spiritual listlessness of post-war France, Iter purely defensive attitude, and her downfall. In Germany the .bitterness of defeat planted the seeds of a purpose. An elan of rage was born of an exasperated "will to power," of a fury of revenge in a nation singularly brutal and ruthless, and of the wrong idea fostered by the restraint and mildness of the democratic Powers that Germany had never been squarely beaten. On this negative basis the Nazis unified Germany and produced a statesmanship of their own. Their purpose may be vile, their methods atrocious; but their technique was certainly superior to that of the statesmen of the Kuropean democracies who faced them before, and at the outbreak of, the war. "BEAST FROM THE ABYSS" Nothing more deeply horrified me than the visible change in acquaintances and friends, men whom 1 thought 1 knew well, when they came under the spell of Nazi politics. Good men seemed to be attacked bv new lusts, Dr. Hermann Kauschning writes in his new book, "The lieast from the Abyss." They acquired new habits, made disreputable friendships, grew overbearing. They gambled, lived beyond their means, and became vile creatures who thought nothing of torturing and robbing and murdering those who were weaker than they. Nazism is the subtlest at;d most consistent attempt in history to make political capital out of the evil in men and out of evil men. In till countries there are creatures who take pleasure in torture, who enjoy brutality, and are ready to commit any cruelty. These people, hitherto kept in bounds by the forces of order, are now enticed from their dens by the new gospel of force, of the will, to power and libertinism. They are enticed by honours, promotions, and every satisfaction of their particular lusts. Thus there rises up a sort of world conspiracy of all the criminal instincts and elements in man. Gangsters and men of ill repute and criminals recognise one another at sight, and to-day there is a great international of the criminal world, now all in politics. We are perhaps only at. the outset of a monstrous development.