Evening star., 1953-11-04
Churchill in q Hopeful Mood

Optimism, properly moderated, has its
virtues, and Prime Minister Sir Winston
Churchill believes that the world has reason
to enjoy measure Of it at this time. AT any
rate as he has just told the British House OF
Commons he himself feels "a sense of reas-
surance" because his latest assessment OF the
international situation has persuaded him that
"there has been a dminution of tension and
that the probabilities of another war have
diminished, or at least become more remote"
It may be that Sir winston has let his wish
be father to his thought but he is such an
experienced and perceptive student of the world
that he commands respectful attention when he
declares, II do not find it unreasonable or
dangerous to conclude that internal prosperity,
rather than external conquest is not only the
deep desire of the Russian peoples, but also the
long interest of their rulers" In other words,
he has the strong impression that the men OF
the Kremlin faced as they are with the torml-
dabe allied strength of Britain and western
Europe 'under the massive American Shlelo,
are coming to see that they cannot profit from
further aggression and that therefore the best
thing for them to do is to concentrate on build
ing up the civilian Soviet economy to raise the
living standards of the masses. Needless to
say, if that is true-a very big "if"-then the
outlook for peace has indeed improved
But this is not the only reason why Sir
Winston is in hopeful mood. Paradoxically
enough, he has derived considerable comfort
from fearful scientific discoveries" AS he has
put it, in language that helps explain why he
has won the 1858 Nobel Prize for literature,
"I sometimes have an awed thought that the
annihilating character of these agencies may
bring an utterly unforeseeable security to man
kind. When the advance of destructive weapons
enables every one to kill everybody else nobody
It'll x,I0Ix, vote oil
credit governments with much more sanity than
they possess, but the fact remains that sucn
things as atomic and hydrogen bombs-because
thew could wipe out the life of the entire world
in a nightmare of devastation too horrible TO
imagine-should act as a permanent deterrent
to war and make peace inevitable II madneSS
does not take hold of places like the Kremlin
Here again the "if' involved is very big
But Sir Winston, nothing daunted by the
Kremlin's persistent refusal to negotiate ser1-
ously with the West on Germany or any other
vital issue, nevertheless holds that qualified
optimism is justified. In his opinion the free
Notwithstanding that it does not relax its
vigilance or allow it's strength again to dwindle
can look forward with hope to the future
because it has a reasonably good chance of
establishing a sound peace. He may be wrong,
as he himself comedies, but still his rather
cheering words serve as wholesome antidote
to the counsels of defeatism and despair being
voiced by the Cassandras. The. time is not yet
for anybody to conclude that war is inevitable.
How quickly the years flash by between
the time when you think it's so cute the way
the children try to use grown-up words and the
time the children think it's SO cute the way
you try to talk bebop
It's only fear that the Halloween pranksterS
would break the light bulbs that keeps the
Christmas decorations from going up in october.