Evening star., 1941-08-02
Nozi Raids to Help Britain
Destruction of SIum Areas and Reshifting
Of Population Cited os Two of Benefits

purely local. Now national agency,
the Ministry of Works and Build
ings, under Lord Reith, is dealing
with the subject.
5. The redistribution of industry
and population, the replanning Of
cities, welfare work and education
and other changes will very possibly
bring about striking readjustment
of administration. A foundation for
this has already been laid by the
exigencies of defense.
6. Above all, many of the features
of industrial concentration and gov
ernmental control imposed by the
war will certainly remain. They
will reshape all British life. The
state now has full charge of nearly
all British effort. 1t controls all
the important raw materials; it al
locates shipping space for imports
and exports; it regulates the flow OF
labor and the use of machinery.
We need not fear that Britain
will go in for Fascism-unless the
war ends in draw which demands
the heaviest kind of armed pre-
paredness for a renewal of the con-
flict. We need not fear that Great
Britain will become an out-and-out
socialist state; the British are far
too individualistic for that. But
capitalism of the pre-war variety
will not be restored. 1t will be
strongly and permanently modified.
Initiation Expected.
While the British expect to win
the war, they do not look to the
future with bright hopes. They
know that the incredible costs of
this conflict will leave all Europe,
including themselves, struggling in
poverty. Nearly every one looks
forward to pronounced imitation.
One evidence of this is the wide
spread scramble for the purchase
of land.
Workingmen look for a period of
hard times after the conflict. OF
that fact my own conversations with
laboring people would convince me.
But better evidence is afforded by
an investigation into the savings
habits of certain industrial COM
munities carried out since the war
began. The inquiry polled large
numbers of workers to learn if they
took an Optimistic" or "pessimistic"
view of the postwar period. In most
of the towns dealt with the pre-
dominant response was pessimistic.
Especially in centers where the
people depended on one industry,
such as Shipbuilding or coal mining,
remembrance of the black years of
unemployment and suffering after
the last war was keen. Many work.
ers there were saving hard for the
rainy day ahead.
But the British nevertheless en-
visage Some valuable compensations
for their present sufferings. One, of
course, is a liberated and reorganized
Europe. They expect to overthrow
NaZi-ism with completeness which
will make its revival utterly impos-
sible. They expect to expirate every
Quisling who has arisen in the con-
quered countries.
Want Organized World.
They look forward to a vindica-
ton and rehabilitation of democracy
over a great part of the continent.
They believe, too, that an organized
world must replace the anarchy
which has now led to two great wars.
Labor spokesmen in particular are
insisting that war cannot be abol-
ished unless its economic causes are
abolished, and that the foundations
of peace must be economic security,
social justice and reasonable pros
perity for individuals and nations
alike.
But this is not all. A host of
Englishmen hope that the immense
changes under way in the country,
which are often agonizing in their
immediate effects, will do some
thing to make Great Britain a real
land of hope and glory.
Radicalism has taken a deep hold
in the island, but it IS a sane and
not an irresponsible or reckless kind
of radicahsm. No doubt the present
strong state control of industry will
mean good deal more of state
ownership after the war. No doubt
the present strong state control of
finance will mean a fairly drastic
distribution and equalization of