A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
ONE hesitates to disagree with Mr. Harold Nicolson on any aspect of foreign affairs ; but it is really very hard to understand his comparison of Nazism to " a hoop which topples over when it stops." Unless the hoop has greatly changed since my time, I should have said that Nazism had none of its attributes. No hoop of mine possessed those powerful four-wheel brakes whose distant scream was faintly audible last Saturday ; let alone the Nazi facility for changing imperceptibly into reverse gear. The Nazi system is in fact extremely well adapted for stopping, and for retreating. Whenever it has been con- fronted with any show of resolute opposition it has come smoothly to a halt. It is only in the face of offers to negotiate, or in the presence of adversaries who point determinedly to their own weakest links, that the system cannot give way. To retreat in such circumstances is a loss of Ehre. A retreat before superior force is easily represented as a stroke of statesmanship, and as such is heartily welcome to the German people, many of whom would be only too glad to think that they really were encircled beyond hope of any violent solution.
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