Bri The Editor
The Future of Germany nN another page we print an interview With Mr. Stokes, M.P., in which he gives our reauers the Derwin 01 his views about Inc treatment 04 Germany as a result of his investigations in that country. It is evident enough that the Allied policy towards Germany is a critical question, for there cart be no rebuilding of Europe until the question is settleo. So far it has been a chapter of ghastly mistakes and squabbles, beginning fiom the original folly of insisting on unconditional surrender. Unconditional surrender left Germany without a government, with the result that the country passed over to the Allies to quarrel over and to maintain at a high cost in money and effort. And now those who backed this madness most vociferously arc the first to squeal about the cost. Rut. having assumed these responsibilities, we are bound to discharge them and to see to it that the men, women and children of Germany are enabled to live and develop their society. We are bound to this in decency and we are bound to it in the interests of Europe and the world. As Mr. Stokes points out, there is little hope of agreement on policy being reached with the Russians. Therefore, we must go ahead on our own, and, so far as possible. in company with America and France. A joint Anglo-FrancoAmerican occupation with the dual ohject of restoring German society and economy and of controlling it in the interests of the West, is the only sensible policy. And elementary .morality dictates the duty to allow prisoners and displaced persons to choose their future courses with the co-operation of the United Nations. Just as the blunders of the past arc to-day being shown up for what they were, SO a failure to tackle the question at this late date will reveal itself as further disester in a matter of months.
Lesson of Nuremberg A S an ceample of the rapidchange 411. of view wnich follows experience, the correspondence in the Times on the Nuremoeig trials is woon reauing. Protessor Gilbert Murray, on May e, asked: " How can it be just, or to future generations ever scent just, that after a war the victors, because they are victors, should judge the offences of the vanquished, and, merely because they are victors, ..escape all judgment tnenteelves? I doubt if these trials wilt produce in history that moral effete which is claimed to be their main justification. A soldier judged and hanged by his enemies is to his own people an object of sympathy rather titan horror." Last October, before the trials began, we wrote in this column; " It is difficult to escape the conclusion that the whole thing is a mockery calculated to throw into disrepute what little remains of conscience in international affairs. This present step, we fear, is a retrograde rather than a progressive one, and we wish
our tine British justice were not associated with it."
The point of interest is not, who was right and who was wrong, but the way in which, time arid again, facts confirm judgments, based, not on special knowledge or special ability, but on Christian principles; and the commonsense which an experience of mankind, founded • in the realism of Christianity. affords. Nuremberg is giving us nothieg hut a shrine for future Nazis and some early facts for the histories's.
Hard Facts in Europe DESPITE some early eviuence of a common will to overcome mittcalms in Pans. he hard facts isi ourope s division have proved too mucli tor the Great Powers. Russia IS ientsing the risk of yielding substantiatly to the West in the hope ot conquering later through her filth columns. And the French reterencium is prooably a-sign that the psychoiogicai moment for ttussia is past. She remains firm in her determination to make Poland, Eastern Germany and Yugoslavia. into three impregnaole bridgeheads• into the West, while her holm through fifth columns, ovei Persia and Manchuria, is not weakened by the withdrawal of her troops. Her position, it cannot be doubted, is immensely strong—indeed, thanks to Mr. Churchill and President Roosevelt, unprecedentedly strong. It will remain a menace to world peace of the first magnitude. She has only one weakness to contend with: the menace that faces every inhuman tyrant. Can she absorb her own conquered peoples? The answer, we believe, depends on the Western Powers. If we make it perfectly clear to the world that our sympathies are with the people of the Baltic States, Poland, Yugoslavia, Central Europe and the Balkans, and thm we shall never recognise any of the regimes of those countries as normal until elections under International supervision, before and after, are held, then Russia's hold on half Europe will never be solid. A firm policy of this character, backed by sufficient arms under Anglo-I-TanenAmerican direction. and ultimately under a O.N.O. majority, is the only hope. After that k will be a matter of " Wen and See." Compared with this issue which the Tories will not face the issue of Egypt and the Suez Canal is but a pin-prick.
The American Loan I T is interesting to note that many
people are beginning to revise their opinions about the American Loan_ Its fate remains undecided as we write. But the piospect of its rejection is disturbing the Americans far more than infornW people in this country. Front the American point of view, rejection means the loss of very important markets and the end of the dream of a fluid world economy directed by America and American interests. et e.
on the othei hand, are realising better that the political divisions in the world render for the present any real economic unity impossible. And in our own especially weakened tinanc.al state, by far our best chance of recovery lies in a restricted, caiefully coatrulled and willing market. The means to shape
this market are to hand. In the Dominions and in Europe we have what we need and the expansion possible through the South Seas Regional Commission is almost limitless.
The one snag is the time it will take to develop our needs, and the real issue of the loan is whether we want a quick, but highly insecure, mowth. in a slow and secure one, and whether we are willing to make the sacrifices that deferment entails. If the American Senate Meets the loan, the decision will have been made for us, and if we know our business, we shall cheer it for solving the problem for us. From every point of view. the best world hope lies in regional pacts and arrangements, and we .vicw, for example, the ptospect of the freely negotiated Netherlands, Belgian, Luxembourg Customs Union as a much sounder gain than the more widely pub. licked plans of the b's statesmen.
The Real Criticism of the Health Bill MR. Bevan made a remarkable de" fence of his National Ileaith Service Bile and, on the ground :ortunCill to all the patties, was not answered. By " ground common to all the parties," we mean the present 'materialistic outlook. If your object is the greatest material good for the greatest number, then the Health Minister is largely unassailable. At most it. is a matter of criticism of detail, and Mr. Bevan was in an accommodating mood. But the question wears a very different aspect when health is regarded, as it were, as a by-product (like nappinees) of the fully integrated man. For centuries in Christian Europe health of soul and health of body were corelated, and the big hospitals were foci of every kind of spiritual and material help, built up against tile background of sober tact that fallett imperfect man can only hope to strike a balance between health and suffering, riches and poverty, perfection and imnerfection. How far we have travelled from these Christian truths is shown ay the fact that. so far as we read, not a single menthe! or the Opposition even taised the question of the spiri
mat (even in the widest sense) justification for treating medicine as nothing but a bit of material science—and what a Science!
It was left to Mr. Stokes, as a Catholic member, to bring up the points made by the Cardinal about voluntary hospitals and morality and medicine, and to receive assurances, unbacked by any commitments, from the Minister.
To get this business into its proper Christian and truditional perspective, we should realise that the Cardinal's points are not mere amendments, but all that to-day is left as " practicable" of a Christian philosophy of life. We arc not concerned to defend private practices and the lack of any medical planning in the past, but we have to recognise the danger of hallowing the present-day, uncritical, materialist worship ol' a pseudo-science which makes pretensions far beyond its proper scope.
Les Folie des Grandeurs 'INHERE is something rather alarming A • in the publication of grandiose plans for new Cities, new roads, new railways and goodness knows what. It is right, of course. that an eye should he kept on future developments, but we are iti no economic shape at present to rebuild the country from top to bottom. Widespread discussion of monster plans which, if they are ever within our means, will he so in totally different conditions raise unnecessary hopes and cause unnecessary sufferings to the thousands who must be the victims of plans. To re-house the country at the cheapest possible rate, consistent with the family rights of human being. and to increase our exports will sax our efforts sufficiently for the next few years. The Government would be much more helpful if it made clear to the people just what is practicable and just what are dreams.
Internationalism and the Atom Bomb I N regaid to the atom-bomb, the Economist has made a very useful point. When we discuss whether atomic energy technique should be kept secret or internationalised, the real question is what we mean by the word " Mee nationalise." lit the present state of the world " internationalisation " simply means handing the secrets over to other nations whom we may or may not he able to trust. If there existed a genuine international organisation with sovereign rights over nations, the question would have an entirely different meaning.