WORLD OF TO-MORROW

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25805, 28 March 1945, Page 4

WORLD OF TO-MORROW

THE TRANSITION TO PEACE PROBLEMS TO BE FACED By James Lansdale Hodson LONDON, Mar. 20. Southern England at the moment is a place of strange contrasts of loveliness and desolation, snatches of happiness and gruelling toil, glimpses of what peace will be like and of the most furious waging of war. I came in out of the garden the other day, where I had been sawing wood in the hot sun, where birds chirruped and where I could see budding almond trees in their young and moving beauty, to find a note from my young relative saying he had been over Germany in his Lancaster three nights running. This spring can mean so many different things to different people. Beware the Ides of March! How the German people must feel the truth of this. We read of lives being lived in German cities beneath the ground, of mysterious figures creeping out from piles of rubble to engage in their main job—that of looting—and their running back to holes when a shell falls near. What an errd for the The immense problem of what to do with them, how to treat them, continues to engross our minds. I attended a premiere of the film “ To-morrow the World” the other evening. This picture shows a German boy, a small monster who is the product of Nazism, living in the home of his kindly American uncle and bringing trouble and unhappiness into that home. A character in the film remarks that there is only one thing to do with the German people—exterminate them. And there was some applause for that. After'wards Mr 11. N. Brailsford_ asked me what proportion of the audience were responsible for the applause? I said I did not think more than 5 per cent. Opinions varied, and of course how many were in agreement without actually applauding is even harder to say. But I believe the large majority would condemn that sentiment as both silly and monstrous. Treatment of Germany

Some discussion followed this film, and I was personally glad to see that most of it was liberal-minded. Lord Hichingbroke, of the Tory Reform Group, stressed the need for the Allies agreeing on uniform treatment of the parts of Grmany that Russians, Americans, French and British are going to control. Some thought nothing could be done in the shape of educating Germany—that was a job for the- Germans themselves. I think it is, but certainly we shall have to lay down some negative laws, at all events ion what must not be taught—such as the glorification of war, distortion of what has been occurring, dissemination of the notion that the Nazis did not start this war and were never defeated. Whether you can forcibly thrust, democracy on a people I doubt, but we nave certainly got to see that a Nazi or Fascist Government does not once more achieve jpower. As to how soon there will be an end of organised resistance in Germany one man’s guess is as as another’s, and yours and mine, though I find it difficult to see, with our troops across the Rhine and our using our new 10-ton bombs —the biggest the world has ever seen—how the enemy can hold out many weeks longer. But as I have said before, our joy will be tempered by the burden of misery hanging over Europe, by the famine and disease ttett promise to stalk through many .re country and indeed are doing so now, to some extent. We are being warned here that no increase in rationed foods can be expected for a year or two, for we have already made inroads on our stocks to help the peoples of liberated Europe who are in a worse plight than ourselves. All the same we find the prospect of our weekly rations of Is 2d worth of meat being cut a pretty grim The man in the street ,1s tired and overworked. That is one reason why he looks on the performance of Churchill at 70 with such admiration. To the onlooker he shows no sign of strain and yesterday was as vigorous in the Commons as over—the Commons, which has now .reverted to its pre-war hours of work and was hard at it-the first night till-20 minutes past midnight. Our old men should have a special statue erected to them after this war if indeed we put up any at all. H. G. Wells, who wrote me a note this week at the age of 77, did so in handwriting as beautifully shaped and formed as ever, although he has recently been ill. Mr Bernard Shaw, who will be 89 im July, is still tilting in the letter column of The Times and within the past year was waging a battle for spelling, reform. But it was not so much of celebrities as of old men in industry and at sea that I was thinking—our old men dock labouring and working on the conveyor belt in the bottom of a pit, our old sea captains of 70, still on the job. But while the old still carry on there are younger substances —though inanimate ones—which may never function at all. I have in mind some of our munitions of war which may happily prove to be surplus. What of our stocks of poison gas which we shall certainly never use unless Hitler does? What of our stocks of fighter aircraft and bombers, tanks, guns, shells? Too soon yet, you may say, to be giving thought to that, but thought nevertheless is being given to it and double as much to the problem of thb eventual switchover of factories and industries from war to peace.

We shall manage -it better than last time because of this hard .thinking. Progress following on the end of the German war will have some'queer facets—one, that as some people are demobilised others who have thus far been in reserved, occupations will be called up to fight Japan. That is some evidence of an endeavour to see to it that the burden is equally shared. Process of Re-adjustment I began by speaking of strange contrasti in this England. A friend recovering from illness in a small Devonsnire Hotel writes me that the hotel is full of drama—nearly all are honeymoon couples or young couples with husbands on short leave from the fronts. “ There is a Canadian on seven days’ leave with his wife, a nursing sister. They were married last Tuesday on his arrival in England—she did not know till 11 o’clock the night before that she was going to be married next day. Then there is an English officer on 30 days’ leave from Burma—his wife is here, too.' It is his first leave after five years: there is a little son at home aged four whom he has not yet seen. They have come here to make their own readjustment before tackling the small son. They are going to be all right. It is lovely ,to watch their happiness blossoming as the nervousness of their first reunion passes away.”

That is one glimpse of England. A second letter describes a moment in a London tube when a young man was being glared at by a neighbour because it looked as though the first young man had his arm on the shoulder of the other man’s wife. Words came from the angry man and the first young man apologised—he had not realised what had happened—his'new artificial arm—he was a wounded soldier—which was controlled by straps around the other shoulder, had, without his .knowing, worked itself up into this embarrassing position. A reminder of the tact and forbearance that post-war life is going to demand. One might use the old phrase about things not always being what they seem. That brings to mind the fact of how little mention the troops from the United Kingdom have been getting on the western front lately. One might imagine all the work was being done by the Americans and Canadians, But of course it is not. For one thing/ it is true to say that the First Canadian Army had, during recent operations, a very high proportion—at least two-thirds—of United Kingdom troops, that on this army’s front some of the very stiffest fighting has been waged. The Americans and Canadians are doing a magnificent job. but those men from Britain itself had better not be forgotten. Misconceptions only lead to trouble later on.