Evening star., 1940-11-29

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II 1t continues to want to, and 1t
certainly was prepared to when ]
was there.
The Hardest Questions
The hardest questions to answer
about the English is how they are
going to win the war and what they
are going to do when they've won
it. The general belief in the gov
ernment as well as in the air force
is chat it can and will be won by
intensive bombing of Germany. It
is recognized that this can be done
only with American production Of
bombing planes and after the en-
pire pilot training program Is at
least six months, possibly a year,
older. The theory is that the in
dustrial production of Germany can
be crippled until Hitler hollers for
help. The Greek show and the
middle east show are regarded as
important but not crucial.
But I don't think many people
I have talked to would call me a
liar II I said flatly that the heads
of the British government do not
know how the war is to be won.
They simply propose to find out how
and to win it. There was great
deal of talk about taking the often
sive while was there-somewhere
in the Mediterranean, even in the
north. But most of it was bomb
ing offensive on German industrial
production.
AS to the postwar world-the
most intelligent people seem to be
increasingly conscious of their OBJ
legation to define their objectives.
But they are yet to be defined. The
government, believe, is thinking
in terms of some kind of a United
States of Europe. disarmed. on the
ground, and policed by an inter-
national air force-and the world
then to take up where it left on in
its search for social justice.
went to England full of such
questions as these. It did not take
me long to find out how deeply
uninterested people who are fighting
for life as they know it-and fight
ing desperately with their backs to
the wall-are in that long view of
history on which peaceful peoples
like to speculate.
Deep-Lying Changes.
That fundamental changes are
taking place in Great Britain there
is no doubt. But as to estimating
how far they have progressed, or
appraising their permanence-that
is subject that is interesting to
speculate on but not very profitable.
A cynic remarked to me that the
most terrible thing that could hap
pen to England was to have the
Germans stop bombing it. There
may be some truth in this state
ment.
As long as the bombs do not kill
too many people and yet are still
falling, England will continue to
change, and for what we in Ameri-
ca will think the better. Glass snob-
berry, so offensive to us whether in
lords and ladies or truck drivers or
scullery maids, is forcibly breaking
down. A nation cannot sleep wher-
ever it finds itself at night and
with whomever happens to lie down
next to 1t and not have things
happen to it's class distinctions.
A nation cannot be in such des-
perate need of skill and so deeply
indebted to whomever has it regard
less of class without things hap
pening to it. A nation cannot 60
bankrupt cheerfully as England is
going bankrupt within the next six
months without things happening
to social relations based on capital
and property. But, as to how far
this process has gone and whether
when the war is over the scullery
maids and the ladies in waiting
will go back to their old relation
ships, I would not venture to say.
Servants of the War.
What I do know is that whatever
its cost, "the war effort" is a really
universal effort-a tide in which
every man, woman and child swims;
and that there are few back eddies
and waters in which this is not so.
1t was this universally of effort
that met everywhere that made
the government seem to me some
how, and curiously, unimportant.
1t is as if it were not guiding events,
but being pushed by them. Not
simply by external events, but by
things happening internally in
England.
The government is not even as
possessive about the war as the
Communist party is possessive about
the shelters. And in almost every
single minister of the government
I talked to I felt sense of men
being pushed from below, of trying
to keep up with the demands of
the people. Whether their problems
are fighting the Germans in the
air, maintaining the position of
labor and production, or of protect
ing people on the ground from war
in the air.
In direct answer to the questions,
do you believe thre is a social
revolution in England? And if so, in
what direction?" I would have no
hesitancy answering Eyes. To the
left"
(To be continued Sunday)
(Copyrieht, 1910. by the Newspaper PM,