5 OCTOBER 1945, Page 12

PEACE THROUGH FEAR . . . ?

sm,—It is perhaps dangerous for a newcomer to venture to enter a con- troversy which is already under way, but as a man in the street I should like to have the opportunity of commenting on one statement of Canon Roger Lloyd. Canon Lloyd, in discussing Mr. Hamilton Fyfe's agnosticism, says that it offers the ordinary man or woman "no hope at all." I would vigorously dispute that. The League of Nations, if it had been supported

by the various governments of the world, would almost certainly have succeeded, and the new organisation of the United Nations, though it has many a sticky passage to get through, can be made to work. There has never, all tlirough history, been any reluctance on the part of Christian nations to use any weapon which is available, and there is no reason to suppose that Christian nations in the future will be reluctant to use the atom bomb on a large scale. On the other hand, there has been a laudable tendency on the part of scientists to insist that the atom bomb be put under rigid control. The majority of people, I am sure, would hold that the only hope of security and peace is through an extension of the now embryo sciences of sociology and psychology—which may teach people to become reasonable beings—and not through the almost certainly illu- sionary anticipation that appealing to God will bring some automatic

relief.—Yours faithfully, JOHN ROWLAND. Conway House, Watling Street, Radlett, Hens.