A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
TO half the people who complain that the Prime Minister has no policy I feel inclined to answer " I would rather he had no policy than yours." I am as ready to criticise the Prime Minister and the Cabinet as anyone if the need arises, but consider for a moment the unanswered questions on the answers to which their policy must be based. Has Austria satisfied Herr Hitler's territorial ambi- tions ? Could we, even if we, wanted to, give immediate. help to Czechoslovakia except by air attacks on Germany. in the west, resulting in unimaginable slaughter and destruc- tion on both sides ? Has France the capacity, and Russia the will and the capacity, to engage Germany successfully ? Will General Franco, if he wins the Spanish war, throw off foreign domination or submit to it ? How genuinely anxious is Italy to reach a satisfactory agreement with us ? Would Poland in the last resort be in the French or the German camp, and Jugoslavia in the French or the Italian ? Could Germany be counted on to leave the west of Europe alone if we concluded we could not go campaigning against her in the east, or has she a long-term policy consisting of consolidation in the east to be followed by concentration on remaining opponents in the west ? Is the regime in Germany or in Italy in any danger from within ? If the Cabinet knew certainly the answers to these questions, or half of them, it might begin to see some light amid the darkness that enshrouds the future.
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