LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. The most suitable length is that of one of our "News of the Week" paragraphs. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym.—Ed. Thu SPECTATOR.]
FASCISM AND THE ANSWER
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
Sra,—The article by Mr. Robert Bernays, M.P., on this subject deserves careful consideration, for while it is true that any form of dictatorship may be alien to the British outlook, it is also certain that the youth of this country is increasingly doubtful as to the adequacy of our present form of government.
• Although our unemployment figures are declining, we have still two millions unemployed, and these, in large number, are made up of comparatively young citizens who have never been able to look out on life with any sense of security. A large proportion of them are educated young men, capable and eager, who cannot find an opening of any kind in this country, and to whom no other nation will extend a welcome. Before the War, emigration would have solved their problem, but today nearly every foreign or colonial market is closed to them. They will not submit indefinitely to the slow process of physical and mental deterioration from which they are suffering, and they provide material ready to hand for Fascist propaganda on the one hand, and Communism on the other. Hitler has solved the problem in Germany by absorbing them into his military machine, and Mussolini has disposed of them by the creation of a militia and by turning them into soldiers. Nothing was more significant to me, in a recent visit to Italy, than the fact that one young man in three was in uniform.
Is it beyond the resources of our statesmen in this country to create a National Service Army and to absorb a million of our young unemployed in various forms of national service ? Why not a Five Years' Plan for Great Britain, during which long overdue constructive work could be put in hand on a national basis ? We have spent some 1,500 millions since the Armistice in entirely unproductive expenditure in the main- tenance of our unemployed. The fruit of this expenditure has been national demoralization of character, and the destruction of self-respect. Five hundred millions spent during the next five years in work of reconstruction would not only be fruitful, but would bring new hope to our great army of unemployed.
Every city and village council throughout the country could be invited to co-operate in a Five Years' Plan, and in preparing a schedule for development work in their area. Housing and slum clearance could be speeded up ; the electri- fication of our railways (long overdue) put in hand ; the rebuilding of public and municipal buildings, many of which are out of date, commenced ; a national scheme for reafforesta- tion undertaken, to replace our destruction of timber caused by the War ; the clearance of derelict land, left by our nine- teenth-century industrialism, inaugurated ; the development of intensive cultivation of fruit and vegetables on a national scale undertaken ; the improvement of our secondary roads put in hand ; drainage and an adequate water system provided in our smaller villages, and other work of national urgency organized. All of these schemes are practical with little fur- ther cost to the Nation than our present unemployment expenditure, and they would at once provide, by enlistment, for a large proportion of the unemployed black-coated and otherwise, who now look into the future with a feeling of blank despair. This expenditure would be in the nature of an investment, for it would, if wisely directed, increase the Nation's assets.
We organized National Service during the War ; what is to prevent us doing the same thing in our present national
• emergency ? Our present method of dealing with the problem is creating a steadily increasing army of discontented citizens, who are a peril to our national peace, and material ready to hand for any political adventurer who has the audacity to offer some immediate millennium.—I am, Sir, &c.,
Argots WATSON.
.Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1.
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