Evening star., 1941-10-30
Mob Strategy

London's historic Trafalgar Square,
the scene of many popular gather
ings, never witnessed a stranger
spectacle than that enacted a few
days ago, when sponsors of labor
demonstration demanded immediate
"all-out" aid to Soviet Russia. The
vast crowd, dominated by Commu-
niStS but including other elements
radical, liberal and trade union-was
in an angry and uncompromising
mood. The keynote was the repeated
shout: western front offenSive!"
When spokeSmen for the government
tried to explain that an immediate
invasion of the continent was mill
tarily impossible, the crowd would
have none Of it. They were sum-
marily hoWled down. Even so promi-
nent a Laborite as Miss Ellen Wilkin-
son could not get a hearing.
This Trafalgar Square demonStra-
ton was not an isolated incident.
In many parts of Britain similar
mass meetings were being held, as
the climax to a campaign of protest
and criticism against the govern
ment's failure to do something" big
and spectacular to take pressure off
Britain'S hard-preSSed Russian ally.
This swelling campaign has given
the government increasing concern.
In and out of Parliament, leading
official spokesmen have warned that
a premature offensive would be the
worst of follies. That has been the
theme Of Foreign Secretary Anthony
Eden, of First Lord of the Admiralty
Alexander and others. 1t was per-
haps best expressed by Lord Moyne,
colonial secretary, who told the
House of Lords that it would be
madness" to "improvise' an in
vasion of the continent to satisfy
the cry of amateur Strategists,
soapbox orators, and the press;
and he concluded: Il cannot imagine
anything which would suit Hitler's
move better than if We adopted the
Chinese method OF committing sui
eide on your neighbor's doorstep"
- These warnings had all been ut
tered before the Trafalgar Square
and other demonstrations. Yet they
had no perceptible effect upon the
wave of popular emotion which is
sweeping Britain. The strangest
aspect of the matter is that those
elements now shouting for an imme-
diate invasion of the continent were
precisely the ones who, in past years,
opposed preparedness, fought con-
scription, signed peace ballots" and
assailed Churchill as war monger.
They now denounce his. "timidity."
Mr. Eden rightly expressed his aston
ishment that he should live to hear
such reproaches hurled at Britain's
doughty war Prime Minister.
All this illustrates one of the most
thorny problems which popular
government has to face. The masses
have always been subject to emo
tional moods in which opposition to
their demands rouses passionate pro-
test, no matter how well-founded
such opposition may be. Perhaps the
most striking example in history is
that of Athenian policy during the
Peloponnesian War Athens was
pure" democracy, wherein the as
sembled citizens actually decided how
the state should be run. Clever
demagogues swayed the assembly
and forced the government into rash
military adventures. On the other
hand, Sparta, the archenemy, was
the Prussia Of antiquity, regimented
state, living for war. The outcome
was the triumph of Sparta and the
ruin of Athenian democracy.
Our own history has not been free
from the dangerous influence of
popular clamor, notably during the
Civil War period. We should watch
and take to heart the stanch stand
of the Churchill government against
yielding to emotional mass pressure.
1t confronts one of the gravest in
ternal dangers that a democracy has
to face.