REALITY AND THE ENGLISHWOMAN.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:1
Snt,—Anxious to see the latest developments of the world-war, one glances at the breakfast-table, only to be disgusted by what one seat staring one in the face from the first page of the English paper. Two Zeppelins have been brought down—lurid pictures and columns of matter by eyewitnesses crowd the whole front page. The world-war is left out. The public in England seem content with such utter lack of proportion and spectacular news. Apparently those in England do not mind turning over the page to find the real news of the war hidden away in small print in a corner. British official news from the Somme, a new Russian battle on a threerhundred-mile front, and eighty-five battles of the air in two days do not appear to have half the importance. No—the Zeppelin news, because it is seen and comes nearer to being a personal danger, must be the most prominent. The reality must not come to light or the personal importance would fade away into oblivion. It has often been said that, owing to the war, England is entering into a new era. Goodness and strength are to be the new watchwords
evil and pettiness are to find no place. How is this to be Does the soldier going to England on leave see any great change ? Sorely he does not. Does he see any small Signs of this Utopian revival which is often foreshadowed ? We think he does. Unhappily we think that the war automatically has, or is going to, force this change upon us. It will do nothing of the kind. The war is in itself a negative force. Our social problems will be the same directly it is over. All that this almost hope- less catastrophe can do is to force open the gate which used to bar the road to the New Jerusalem. A new spirit of kindness has been bora amidst the turmoil which fast fades away when danger and common discomfort have passed. Men returning from the battle will possess this kindliness born of the war. Unless it is fostered very tenderly it will be quickly swamped by the carelessness of civilian life. Who alone will be able to keep alive this spirit—a knowledge of the reality of life— and fan it into a powerful flame burning for ever as the goodly heritage of war ? It is the women of England who alone can do this. On the character of the women who welcome home husbands, lovers, sons, and brothers the fate of England depends : whether the gate of the new city which has been unlocked by the war will remain open, or shut suddenly with a crash, leaving us all, as before, surging at the entrance. Unless those at home fully and completely realize the true values of this war long before the armies return, there is little hope that any revival will then come about.• Men will value their freedom too highly, and will not pass over small defects and mistakes as they often do now in the Army, realizing that they personally are of small account among millions. They now make their personal advantage subservient to the common weal, but when the country has no further need for such self-sacrifios they will reclaim their entire personality. Only tact will then guide them. At first when they return they will be easily persuaded, but unless those at home see their fleeting chance and grasp it, the spirit of kindness will have passed and the old reeime of former days returned. The output of the British Isles in munitions in difficult circumstances has proved that there was no kindliness in the old econcenio raorld and how much the spirit of suspicion hampered satisfactory work. Never did employer and employee understand one another. They have now faced death together, and a new and a great understanding is coming into being. Suspicion can, after the war, give way to trust. No fundamental or immediate reforming of the " Great Society " is necessary. The vastness and the possibilities of this new spirit are too great. The add system renovated by this new understanding of life can be entirely altered. The eagerness with which those at home devour the spectacular and miss the realities makes those of us, who watch England's gradual awakening from " somewhere in France," wonder. We wonder whether this " Great Divide " will bring any real compensation for the many loved names we see daily on the Roll of Honour. We wonder whether those in England—the women of England—are letting the spectacular pass and aro clutching firmly to this great spirit of kindness which is growieg up as an immediate result of the war. This spirit will pass away if it is not quickly realized and firmly encouraged after the agony is over.
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