COUNCIL OF ACTION AND WAR AIMS
Sta,—Your apparently studied and somewhat contemptuous dismissal of the constructive proposals of the Council of Action is not worthy of The Spectator. Viscount Cecil, in the current issue of Headway, claims (in respect of the League of Nations Union), " had this policy been consis- tently and courageously followed we should not now find ourselves in this position." We in the Council of Action can make that claim with even greater confidence and with fully documented justification.
For four years, during which those who now hold our destinies in their control, directed the policies of the nation, we have never wavered in warning the nation that a betrayal of those principles on which alone ordered life both within the State and internationally was in accelerating progress. That witness was maintained by a body of clearly informed electors who still believe in our democratic institutions and they are proud to be led by that distinguished statesman who has given a lifetime of dedicated service to this great Commonwealth of Nations.
What have we asked in the Resolution which offends your taste? Peace on Herr Hitler's terms? Indeed we have not. Mr. Lloyd George stated unequivocally in the House of Commons, where that statement above all needed to be made, that the terms were entirely unacceptable and the unsup- ported word of Herr Hitler unreliable. Like those who eighty- five years ago listened to John Bright's famous Angel of Death oration, we, too, " almost heard the beating of his wings," as we contemplated those monstrous engines of destruction, massed as never before in the world history, on the Western front. Whilst there still remains this hesitation on Ger- many's part to release them, we urge that this remaining occasion be made the opportunity for restating, in clearer terms than " smashing Hitlerism " suggests, our own peace aims.
In a land where Christian motive is still recognised, it can- not be deemed recreant to make such an appeal. Or have we now committed ourselves to the unutterable folly that there is no alternative to the ruin of our cities, the massacre and maiming of millions of the world's population, and the destruction of some of the world's fairest treasures, be- queathed by antiquity to a discredited posterity, until we reach possibly a situation of stalemate and barbarism re- places the sanity of civilised life?
Against such a counsel of despair we in the Council of Action for Peace and Reconstruction, at least, utter our con- tinuing protest. Before the jungle has been finally liberated into our European society, we demand that this God-given opportunity for reason to prevail over the dark passions of the war-minded and misguided rulers of the Continent, be im- proved. If our terms be rejected by the German rulers, then the ordeal by battle will have to take its brutal and merciless course ; but our consciences will then be clear in the sight of both man and God.—Yours faithfully, EDGAR A. SHAW, Hon. Treasurer, C. of Action, South London Area.
19 Harbourfield Road, Banstead, Surrey.
[There was no dismissal, contemptuous or otherwise, of the Council of Action's " constructive proposals." We were dis- cussing something different, the Council's criticism of the Prime Minister's reply to Herr Hitler.—En. The Spectator.]
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