Evening star., 1948-06-20

speaking peoples through their un-
wisdom, careleSSneSs and good ma
ture allowed the wicked to rearm." "
What he has written on that point,
in beautifully cadenced prose, is a
continuation of his three books on
the First World War. 1t spans the
tumultuous years beginning with the
Versailles treaty and ending with
his becoming Britain's Prime Min
lister in 1910, just before Dunkirk.
In that sense, it is merely an in
PRODUCTION to the monumental story
he has yet to tell about events. dur
ing his wartime leadership. But it
is an introduction" full of such
great drama and such extraordinary
Importance that reading it is in
dispensable to an understanding of
our time.
Easily Prevented.
It is Mr.. Churchill's contention
voluminously documented - that
There never was war more easy
to stop than that which has just
wrecked what was left of the world
from the previous struggle" A good
name for it, as he once told Presi-
dent Roosevelt, would be The Un-
necessary War" At any rate, in
his judgment, German rearmament
could have been halted and Hitler
completely thwarted as late as 1894,
Or even later, without the loss of
single life. What might have hap
pened, however, never did happen.
1t never happened because an aloof
United States and muddled, vacil-
lating and appeasing Britain left
France without any support worthy
of the name and thus emboldened
the Nazis to precipitate the most
terrible convulsion in the history of
mankind.
Mr.. Churchill cannot be accused
of arguing from hindsight in elab-
Grating upon his thesis. Through
all the years between the two wars,
he repeatedly prophesied the very
things that came to pass, and he
employed all his great power of
tongue and pen to wake up his coun-
try and goad it into preventive
action. But he was voice crying
in a wilderness of well-meaning but
essentially suicidal pacifism. As
The Gathering Storm" makes clear,
the pre-1939 democratic world was
world peopled largely by incorrigi-
BILE sleepwalkers. wishful thinkers
and appeasers who seemed to make
virtue Of being irresolute and of
doing too little too late in the pres
ence Of militant, conquest-bound
evil.
TOO Little and Too Late"
Ramsay Macdonald, Stanley Bald
win and Neville Chamberlain-Mr.
Churchill's predecessors in the Office
of Prime Minister-were among
these. though their hearts were good
and their. intentions excellent. Grim
facts could not be made to dim
their roseate hopes. Rejecting the
majority temper of their country
men, they let things slide until 1t
was too late. The same can be
said Of ourselves and the French.
Hitler alone acted. He capitalized
on every moment and every oppor-
tunity. So the Rhineland was oc-
cupied, Austria was absorbed,
Czechoslovakia was torn apart, a
deal was made with Russia, Poland
was ravaged. and then the global
agony was on.
In THE Gathering Storm" Mr..
Churchill tells of all this-including
the early battles of the war-in
fascinating detail and superb Ian
guage. The historical accuracy and
objectivity of some sections-notably
those dealing with armament fig
ures and the Anglo-French effort
to WOO Russia after Munich-are
open to question. fact which he
himself comedies in his preface. But
the mistakes. if any. do not weaken