The Southland Times SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1938. The Fable Of British Decadence

Southland Times, Issue 23610, 10 September 1938, Page 6

The Southland Times SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1938. The Fable Of British Decadence

At a meeting in Cape Town the leader of the Nationalist Party, Dr D. F. Malan, was reported on Thursday to have said that Britain was no longer a strong Power “and could not give South Africa the protection that might be imagined.” This is the kind of thing that has been said up and down the world for many years. In South Africa it represents the opinion of a political minority that was overwhelmingly defeated at the recent General Election, and no great significance need be attached to it as a sign of possible action in the future. In other countries the story of British decadence has been repeated widely, especially in Italy, whose propaganda has been directed not only at her own people but also at Arab populations in North Africa and the Near East. Much of the comment is simply on the same level as the sly satire of English cartoonists and columnists who like to .dwell on those aspects of Nazi and fascist policy which appeal to the British sense of the ridiculous. A fair sample of Italian humour of this kind which has been going the rounds in London lately is a statement that if you twist the lion’s tail he opens his mouth and shows his false teeth. British people who laugh at the athletic displays of the Fascist Grand Council and the absurdities of racial theory in Germany must be prepared to accept these pleasantries with faint smiles of appreciation. But there is another side of foreign propaganda at which it is not so easy to laugh. The troubles in Palestine have not been caused by Italian broadcasts in Arabic or by the activities of fascist agents; but they have certainly been aggravated by these factors. And there is another danger in the strict censorship of the totalitarian countries. The German and Italian people are given official versions of British policy, but are not allowed to read the whole story from British newspapers. At a time like the present, when Europe has reached an almost unbearable state of tension, they are forced to walk as if blindfolded, trusting their leaders to guide them in issues of the utmost gravity. Mr Wickham Steed recently explained in The Listener that after the British Ambassador had called three times on the German Foreign Secretary during the May crisis (the interviews were said to be “distinctly lively”) a story spread throughout Germany that Britain had prevented war. “In Munich, Dresden and other German cities the people heaved a sigh of relief —for the German people want war as little as the Czechoslovaks or the British do.”

This revealing glimpse of a helpless public suggests that the attitude of the individual German towards Britain is more friendly than hostile. Unlike the Italians the Germans make no pretence of underestimating the power, actual and potential, of the British Empire. They are taught to deride British policy and the absence of the semi-military discipline which plays so important a part in Nazi Germany. But the Nazis are generally believed to have classed Britain among the countries, that are to be persuaded into complaisance or neutralitywhile their imperialist programme goes forward in other directions. Most Germans believe that the British Empire has passed its highest point of prosperity and power and that its ultimate decline is one of the certainties of the future. But they have not forgotten the lessons of the Great War: they respect the fighting qualities of the British soldier and the nation’s capacity for endurance in a time of crisis. It is probably true that they expect time to do its work unobtrusively, breaking down the toughness of fibre that has carried the English through so many wars and troubles and destroying the habit of leadership which came with the growth of an empire. A German who wrote recently on this subject in the Berliner Tageblatt pointed out that Britain had most to fear from the gradual extinction of her peasantry. “England’s foundation .... is in worse case than France’s. In this country the early change-over to pasture, together with centuries of emigration of farmers overseas, has led to a thinning-out of the native peasant element, which every sensible Englishman regards with deep anxiety.” He believes that an urbanized and industrial population is a poor substitute for a people with its roots in the soil. “Although height and vitality are not synonymous—the London cockney was among the best soldiers of the world war—it cannot be disputed that long industrialization is beginning to take its toll, and this all the more since no fresh blood is being brought into the town population from a peasantry.” But it is necessary also to admit that England is a healthy country, that the love of sport has replaced to a certain extent the immediate contacts with the soil and is at least taking most people into the open air. Above all, there is the question of the British temperament, which cannot be explained by reference to

any single factor but is mysteriously the result of many and complex influences drawn from history, race and environment. The German observer believes that Englishmen are successful because they have learned the secret of husbanding their strength, “which they injure,” he wrote with unconscious humour, “neither by overwork nor heated arguments.” Whether or not this is the basic secret of the English temperament, its strength is undeniable and any theoretic appraisal of the future which fails to recognize it as a shaping force in world affairs is ignoring a reality of flesh and blood that should survive many more generations of crisis and conflict. The British are a satisfied nation in the imperialist sense, and it has been noted through history that the “have-nots” are always more eager to attack than those who have full granaries and a quiet place in the sun. But decadence is not necessarily the result of satiety: it exists most of all where the people are debased under the rule of a luxury-loving minority, where freedom is replaced by licence, and where spiritual values are opposed by materialism and injustice. There are countries in the world today where these symptoms can be noted; it is claimed by some thinkers that they foreshadow the break-up of civilization in the west. But only in so far as Britain is a western Power can she be said to share the signs of a collective weakness and regression. As a nation she is still true to herself, and may be stronger than her enemies realize.