* * * * The Germans fight for power and
the Italians fight fa loot. The Russians fight to resist a tremendous outrage and to defend a great experiment which they feel to be their alone. For them the war is a personal ordeal and a personal opportunity just as much as a national ordeal and a national opportunity. Our people possess pride, endurance, courage and superb obstinacy; they do not possess the blazing faith and hope either of our enemies or of our allies. And the reason for this is that whereas the others are fighting for what thet believe to be their own future, there are many thousands d people in this country who assume that they are fighting only for other people's pasts. Our belligerency, therefore, is grim rather than inspired. We have not as yet dikovered formula which will convince the masses that this is for Gr Britain a creative and not only a preservative war. Uri the Germans we are sated with power and glory and seek foe fewer opportunities in the future rather than for more ; unlit the Italians we have no desire for aggrandisement and our vanity has for generations been assuaged. Most of our people loot forward to the loss of many amenities and very few of them regard the future Socialist State as a paradise of golden oppor• tunity. Rather do they see in it a repetition and perpetuatia of coupons and co-operatives. The Empire and the Common, wealth again have lost their glamour and only those who reallt know can derive the inspiration of a rich experiment in hula governance. The average man and woman in Great Britain is bored by India, bored by the Crown Colonies, =mad by the Dominions. All that they really desire is to be abk once again to live their own lives, in their own accustonti proportions, without dread of political or economic insecunt!.
That is a flagging inspiration for so great a task. * * *
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