Sta,—It seems a pity to bait the Archbishops too much;
they have a difficult job on hand, to square war with the recorded teaching of Jesus, and they do it with real skill. But I think Dr. Major does seri- ously overrate the power of the pacificist idealism to do serious harm. It is indeed quite true that " had Hitler not believed that Great Britain was largely pacificist he would not have dared to carry out his policy of aggression." But what sort of pacificism was it that Hitler believed had ensnared us? Not, I think, to any serious extent, the pacificism of principle such as those profeis whose pacificism is voca- tional, but one of a very different colour. It is generally admitted that it was Ribbentrop who was chiefly instrumental in persuading his master that the British would not fight. But one does not learn that this able commercial traveller, while over here, associated much with vocational pacificists, who are not influential enough, nor rich enough, for him to think it worth while wasting time over them. The truth is that the pacificism of the Britain of 1934-8 was only very moderately coloured by idealist elements. It was a pacificism partly of the ostrich type, and partly (I hesitate to say it) of the rabbit type. The ostriches would not see that the precipice was yawning only a few yards away, while the rabbits were so afraid of Bolshevism that Hider by comparison seemed an angel of light. The poor paci- ficists of the conscientious objector type really had very little to do with it. There was no doubt a certain amount of sentimental liberal anti-war feeling; but this was not, I think, the really important factor. The crucial factors were sheer laziness and sheer funk of social revo-
lution.—Yours, J. C. HARDWICIC.
Partington Vicarage, Manchester.
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